Patent ID: 7809276

Claim:
In an optical network environment that includes two or more optical transceivers coupled to each other by one or more optical fibers, a method for optimizing communication over the optical link, the method comprising: an act of a first optical transceiver generating transmit power data; an act of the first optical transceiver combining the transmit power data with communication data in an electrical signal; an act of the first optical transceiver converting the electrical signal into an optical signal; an act of the first optical transceiver transmitting the optical signal to a second optical transceiver over the one or more optical fibers; an act of the second optical transceiver receiving the optical signal; an act of the second optical transceiver recovering the transmit power data from the optical signal; an act of the second optical transceiver using the recovered transmit power data to change transmission power characteristics of an optical signal transmitted by the second optical transceiver; an act of the second optical transceiver using the recovered transmit power data and the receive power data to determine a length of at least one of the one or more optical fibers, wherein the second optical transceiver changes the transmission power characteristics of the optical signal transmitted by the second optical transceiver based on the determined length.