Patent ID: 8032021

Claim:
In a first multi-channel optoelectronic device, a method of establishing a redundant status link with a second multi-channel optoelectronic device, the method comprising: generating a status link modulation signal from status data, the status link modulation signal comprising a low frequency modulation current and representative of the status data; effectively applying the status link modulation signal to at least two transmitter bias currents to generate at least two status link modulated transmitter bias currents, including: modulating a common reference voltage signal with the status link modulation signal to create a status-link modulated reference voltage signal, retrieving at least two digital transmitter bias current values from memory, and providing each digital transmitter bias current value and the status-link modulated reference voltage signal to a different one of at least two digital to analog converters to generate the at least two status-link modulated transmitter bias currents; modulating each status-link modulated transmitter bias current with a different primary data modulation signal to obtain at least two resulting signals, wherein each primary data modulation signal comprises a high frequency modulation current and represents a different primary data electrical signal received by the optoelectronic device; providing each resulting signal to a different optical transmitter for transformation into at least two optical signals; and transmitting the at least two optical signals over a multi-channel communication link to the second multi-channel optoelectronic device.