Optical transceiver with off-transceiver logging mechanism

1. A method for an optical transceiver to log operational data, the method comprising the following:

an act of the optical transceiver identifying first operational information regarding the optical transceiver, the optical transceiver having a transmitter and a receiver that are coupled to a host computing system via a first host communication interface, the optical transceiver also coupled to the host computing system via a second host communication interface that is separate from the first host communication interface;

after the act of identifying the first operational information, an act of the optical transceiver writing redundant copies of first log information representing the first operational information to a persistent memory of the optical transceiver and to a memory within the host computing system via the second host communication interface;

an act of the optical transceiver identifying second operational information regarding the optical transceiver; and

after the act of identifying the second operational information, an act of the optical transceiver writing redundant copies of second log information representing the second operational information to the persistent memory of the optical transceiver and to the memory within the host computing system via the second host communication interface,

wherein the method is performed by a control module within the optical transceiver, and the control module and the persistent memory are integrated on the same chip.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the logged operational information is used to diagnose operational failures in the optical transceiver.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the logged information is uploaded from the host computing system to a remote evaluation center, the remote evaluation center being coupled to the host computing system using a network protocol.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the logged information is sent from the host computing system to a remote evaluation center using traditional mail service.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the first operational information represents one or more of a total operation time for the optical transceiver, a number of times the optical transceiver has been booted, an average operational time between boots, a total number of error conditions encountered, an identification of one or more error conditions encountered, a categorization of the number of error conditions encountered for a plurality of different error types, a laser wavelength approximation, a laser temperature measurement, a supply voltage measurement, a transceiver temperature measurement, a laser bias current measurement, a TEC current measurement, a transmit power measurement, a receive power measurement an acceleration measurement, and an end of life calculation.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the second operational information comprises one or more measured operational parameters of the optical transceiver.

7. An optical transceiver comprising the following:

at least one processor;

a persistent memory; and

a system memory configurable to contain microcode that is user-selected from a library of microcode stored in a memory of a host computing system coupled to the optical transceiver;

wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the microcode in the system memory, the microcode configured such that when executed by the at least one processor, the microcode causes the optical transceiver to identify operational information regarding the optical transceiver, and record only a portion of a log information representing the operational information to the persistent memory and record the entire log information representing the operational information to a memory of a host computing system coupled to the optical transceiver.

8. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the operational information represents one or more of a total operation time for the optical transceiver, a number of times the optical transceiver has been booted, an average operational time between boots, a total number of error conditions encountered, an identification of one or more error conditions encountered, a categorization of the number of error conditions encountered for a plurality of different error types, a laser wavelength approximation, a laser temperature measurement, a supply voltage measurement, a transceiver temperature measurement, a laser bias current measurement, a TEC current measurement, a transmit power measurement, a receive power measurement, an acceleration measurement, and an end of life calculation.

9. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the log information representing the operational information is uploaded from the host computing system to a remote evaluation center, the remote evaluation center being coupled to the host computing system using a network protocol.

10. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the log information representing the operational information is sent from the host computing system to a remote evaluation center using traditional mail service.

11. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the optical transceiver is one of a 1G laser transceiver, a 2G laser transceiver, a 4G laser transceiver, a 8G laser transceiver, or a 10G laser transceiver.

12. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the optical transceiver is a laser transceiver suitable for fiber optic links greater than 10G.

13. An optical transceiver in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the optical transceiver is one of a XFP laser transceiver, a SFP laser transceiver, or a SFF laser transceiver.