Systems and methods to implement a USB and Thunderbolt optical signal transceiver are described. One method includes detecting presence of a USB sideband signal received over an optical communication channel and associated with a USB communication request. Responsive to the detecting, the method may determine that the USB communication request corresponds to a USB communication mode and perform a sideband negotiation. The USB communication mode may be enabled. A specified number of channels associated with the USB communication request may be determined. USB communication may be performed using the specified number of channels over the optical communication channel in the USB communication mode.