Methods and apparatuses for optical communications are provided. By way of example, an optical transceiver includes a processing device coupled to a memory, an optical subassembly, and a programmable device. The optical subassembly is configured to receive and modulate a first signal carrying high speed user data for transmission to a remote device over an optical link. The programmable device is coupled to the processing device and configured to receive data relating to digital diagnostic monitoring information (DDMI) of the optical transceiver from the processing device, perform forward error correction encoding on the DDMI data to produce a remote digital diagnostic monitoring (RDDM) signal, and send the RDDM signal to the optical subassembly as a second signal to modulate for transmission. The optical subassembly is configured to current modulate the second signal on the first signal to produce a double modulated optical signal for transmission to the remote device.