Patent ID: 7234880

Claim:
An electro-optical system comprising: a host printed circuit board with a faceplate for mounting in a housing of a host device; a first cage mounted on the host printed circuit board inside the housing without being directly accessible from outside of the housing when the host printed circuit board is mounted in the host device, the first cage including a first pluggable electrical connector; a first electro-optical module inserted into the first cage, the module including a first optical receptor, and a second pluggable electrical connector for releasably mating with the first pluggable electrical connector; a first adaptor cable having a first end with a first optical connector for plugging into the first optical receptor, and a second end with a second optical connector; and an optical connector adaptor mounted on the faceplate, including a second optical receptor optically coupled with the second optical connector, and a third optical receptor; whereby an external optical cable connector on an end of an external optical cable optically coupled to an external optical network is pluggable into the third optical receptor of the optical connector adaptor for optically coupling the first electro-optical module to the external optical network.