Patent ID: 7974538

Claim:
In an environment that includes an optical transceiver host communicatively couplable to an optical transceiver that has internal memory and one or more internal processors, a method for the optical transceiver host to facilitate purchasing and updating of microcode that governs behavior of an optical transceiver, the method comprising: an act of the optical transceiver host receiving input from a user that identifies microcode that is desired to be purchased; an act of the optical transceiver host transmitting a request to purchase the desired microcode; an act of receiving a response to the request in the form of information by which the purchased microcode may be accessed, wherein the response to the request to purchase comprises receiving a purchased decryption key; an act of accessing the purchased microcode; and an act of providing the purchased microcode that governs behavior of the optical transceiver to the optical transceiver's internal memory; wherein the act of accessing the purchased microcode comprises decrypting encrypted microcode using the purchased decryption key; and wherein the encrypted microcode is loaded in a memory local to the optical transceiver host prior to receipt of the user input identifying desired microcode to be purchased.