Patent ID: 8571410

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first transceiver to transmit a first set of optical signals in a first direction along a first wavelength channel; and a second transceiver coupled to the first transceiver to transmit a second set of optical signals along the first wavelength channel in a second direction opposite to the first direction, wherein the first transceiver is wavelength locked using the second set of optical signals from the second transceiver and the second transceiver is wavelength locked using the first set of optical signals from the first transceiver, wherein the first transceiver saturates gain within a first response time to output the first set of optical signals, wherein the first response time is of the same order of magnitude or shorter than a first time period of data modulation onto the second set of optical signals to remove effects of the data modulation in the second direction that cause noise in the first direction, and the second transceiver saturates gain within a second response time to output the second set of optical signals, wherein the second response time is of the same order of magnitude or shorter than a second time period of the data modulation onto the first set of optical signals to remove effects of the data modulation in the first direction that cause noise in the second direction, wherein the first transceiver and the second transceiver are mutually saturated due to wavelength locking.