A laser (22) and detector (24) integrated on corresponding epitaxial layers of a single chip (20) cooperate with on-chip and/or external optics (62) to couple light of a first wavelength emitted by the laser to a single external device such as an optical fiber (60) and to simultaneously couple light of a different wavelength received from the external device to the detector to provide bidirectional photonic operation. Multiple lasers and detectors may be integrated on the chip to provide multiple bidirectional channels.