A system and method of monitoring a laser output power and laser extinction ratio includes an optical subassembly physically placed between a point light source and a optical fiber device. The combination codes are encrypted and may be applied to goods and checked to determine authenticity of goods; the secret portion may be encrypted with a public key and can be decrypted, for example, using a corresponding private key. The links may be first order or higher order. A guiding wheel that guides the optical storage tape when the optical storage tape is in the vicinity of the optical pickup units during read andor write operations.