Abstract: An optical transport system in which (i) an optical transmitter is configured to adaptively change an operative constellation to use a constellation that provides optimal performance characteristics for the present optical-link conditions and/or (ii) an optical receiver is configured to change shapes of the decision regions corresponding to an operative constellation to adapt them to the type of signal distortions experienced by a transmitted optical signal in the optical link between the transmitter and receiver. Under some optical-link conditions, the optical receiver might use a decision-region configuration in which a decision region corresponding to a first constellation point includes an area that is closer in distance to a different second constellation point than to the first constellation point.

Abstract: An apparatus includes an N×1 spatial mode multiplexer, an optical source and an optical receiver. The spatial mode multiplexer has N input ports and an output port end-couplable to a multimode optical fiber. The multiplexer is configured to preferentially couple light between individual ones of the input ports and corresponding spatial optical modes of the multimode optical fiber. The optical source is connected to a first one of the input ports to launch an optical probe pulse into the fiber. The optical receiver is connected to electrically analyze an optical signal backscattered from the multimode optical fiber and output by a second one of the input ports in response to the launch of the optical probe pulse into the fiber.

Abstract: Embodiments for optical communication are provided in which a receiver includes a digital signal processor configured to process a digital form of an input signal. In one embodiment, the digital signal processor includes a first electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module for compensating the digital form of the input signal, at least one nonlinearity compensation stage for serially compensating an output of the electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module; and a second electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module for compensating an output of the at least one nonlinearity compensation stage.

Abstract: An optical receiver includes a two-stage constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalizer. The first stage is a modified version of a CMA equalizer and the second stage is a conventional CMA equalizer. The first stage may be made up of four sub-equalizers, of which only two of the sub-equalizers are independent, i.e., uncorrelated to each other. This first stage equalizer compensates for polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). The second stage equalizer is a conventional CMA equalizer made up of four sub-equalizers that are adjusted independently. This second stage equalizer may compensate for polarization-dependent loss (PDL). The receiver includes a first processor that determines PMD information based on a plurality of transfer function parameters of the modified CMA equalization of the first stage equalizer and the modified-equalized output and a second processor that determines PDL based on a plurality of transfer function parameters of the CMA equalization of the second stage equalizer.

Abstract: An optical transport system having an optical add-drop multiplexer configured to reduce inter-channel crosstalk by driving Mach-Zehnder pulse carvers in its optical transmitters with electrical drive signals whose swing range is smaller than voltage 2V? of said Mach-Zehnder pulse carvers.

Abstract: One coherent optical receiver includes a 3×3 coupler for receiving a signal and a local oscillator into a first and a third input port respectively, and three detectors for detecting a respective output of the coupler to generate corresponding first, second and third detected signals. A detected signal is filtered by an Alternating Current (AC) coupler to generate a respective first, second or third filtered signal. An adder adds the first, the second and the third filtered signals to determine a directly detected signal term. A first subtractor subtracts the directly detected signal term from the first filtered signal to determine an in-phase signal. A second subtractor subtracts the directly detected signal term from the third filtered signal to determine a quadrature signal. A digital signal processor processes the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal to recover the optical signal.

Abstract: A self-polarization diversity technique to combat PMD in a direct-detection optical OFDM system. This technique does not require any dynamic polarization control, and can simultaneous compensate PMD in a WDM system with one device. Simulation results show that this technique virtually completely eliminates the PMD impairments in direct-detection optical OFDM systems.

Abstract: An arrangement is described for compensating intra-channel nonlinearities in an optical communications system which combines optical dispersion compensation with electronic pre-distortion (EPD). EPD with moderate lookup table size can effectively suppress intra-channel nonlinearities over optical transmission links incorporating optical dispersion compensation. The arrangement can be implemented for a variety of optical communications systems, including 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s and higher bit rate systems as well as single-channel and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems.

Abstract: The singularity problem of the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalizer may be overcome by implementing the CMA equalizer as a two-stage equalizer, with the first stage being a modified version of a CMA equalizer and the second stage being a conventional CMA equalizer. The first stage may be made up of four sub-equalizers, of which only two of the sub-equalizers are independent, i.e., uncorrelated to each other. This first stage equalizer may compensate for PMD. The second stage equalizer is a conventional CMA equalizer made up of four sub-equalizers that are adjusted independently. This second stage equalizer may compensate for polarization-dependent loss (PDL) and any residual CD that is not fully compensated for by a CD compensator before the two-stage equalizer. Advantageously, as the determinant of the first stage never approaches zero, the singularity problem of a conventional CMA single-stage-only equalizer is avoided by the two-stage equalizer.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for optical polarization mode dispersion compensator (PMDC) feedback control for APol-DPSK signals. A feedback signal generator includes a delay-line-interferometer (DLI), with a differential delay line delay (D) different from one bit period (Tb). In an exemplary embodiment, the DLI delay is in the range of 0.5 Tb<D<1.0 Tb, or 1.0 Tb<D<1.5 Tb, preferably 0.85 Tb or 1.15 Tb. The DLI is coupled to a single-ended detector, whose output is amplified and bandpass filtered around the frequency of half the bit rate. The filtered signal is then applied to an RF power detector to generate the PMDC feedback signal. Generation of the PMDC feedback signal in accordance with the present invention is insensitive to any alignment of the state of polarization (SOP) of the received APol-DPSK signal with the principal state of polarization (PSP) of the transmission link. As a result, there is no need for a polarization scrambler at the transmitter.

Abstract: An example method determines at an optical network monitoring device whether a value for at least one parameter that characterizes an optical signal which traverses a link of an optical coherent network is above a corresponding threshold and sets an alarm indicator when the value is larger than the corresponding threshold. The at least one corresponding parameter is at least one of polarization mode dispersion, polarization dependent loss and chromatic dispersion. An example method may obtains the optical signal from the link of the coherent optical network and determines the value for the at least one parameter, which may entail calculating the value based on the optical signal and filter coefficients of a filter that can be utilized to compensate the optical signal.

Abstract: An optical receiver includes a two-stage constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalizer. The first stage is a modified version of a CMA equalizer and the second stage is a conventional CMA equalizer. The first stage may be made up of four sub-equalizers, of which only two of the sub-equalizers are independent, i.e., uncorrelated to each other. This first stage equalizer compensates for polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). The second stage equalizer is a conventional CMA equalizer made up of four sub-equalizers that are adjusted independently. This second stage equalizer may compensate for polarization-dependent loss (PDL). The receiver includes a first processor that determines PMD information based on a plurality of transfer function parameters of the modified CMA equalization of the first stage equalizer and the modified-equalized output and a second processor that determines PDL based on a plurality of transfer function parameters of the CMA equalization of the second stage equalizer.

Abstract: An example Raman co-pump apparatus includes a control module for controlling output received from at least one of a first laser and a second laser, said output of said first laser and said second laser for combining into a co-pump output, wherein the control module is configured to increase a frequency difference between said first laser and said second laser. The apparatus may also include at least one of a first laser for providing a first output, a second laser for providing a second output and a polarization beam combiner for combining the first and second output into the co-pump output. Spectral overlap of orthogonally polarized pump lasers is avoided via: 1) control of the frequency (wavelength) interleave and the mode spacing of co-pump lasers; 2) control of frequency (wavelength) offset of co-pump lasers to reduce spectral overlap; and 3) use a single co-pump laser with large mode spacing.

Abstract: A self-polarization diversity technique to combat PMD in a direct-detection optical OFDM system. This technique does not require any dynamic polarization control, and can simultaneous compensate PMD in a WDM system with one device. Simulation results show that this technique virtually completely eliminates the PMD impairments in direct-detection optical OFDM systems.

Abstract: Embodiments for optical communication are provided in which a receiver includes a digital signal processor configured to process a digital form of an input signal. In one embodiment, the digital signal processor includes a first electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module for compensating the digital form of the input signal, at least one nonlinearity compensation stage for serially compensating an output of the electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module; and a second electronic chromatic dispersion compensation module for compensating an output of the at least one nonlinearity compensation stage.

Abstract: A feedback signal indicative of the average RF power of an APol-DPSK optical signal is used by a PMD compensator to adjust the amount of compensation applied to the optical signal.

Abstract: The singularity problem of the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalizer may be overcome by implementing the CMA equalizer as a two-stage equalizer, with the first stage being a modified version of a CMA equalizer and the second stage being a conventional CMA equalizer. The first stage may be made up of four sub-equalizers, of which only two of the sub-equalizers are independent, i.e., uncorrelated to each other. This first stage equalizer may compensate for PMD. The second stage equalizer is a conventional CMA equalizer made up of four sub-equalizers that are adjusted independently. This second stage equalizer may compensate for polarization-dependent loss (PDL) and any residual CD that is not fully compensated for by a CD compensator before the two-stage equalizer. Advantageously, as the determinant of the first stage never approaches zero, the singularity problem of a conventional CMA single-stage-only equalizer is avoided by the two-stage equalizer.

Abstract: System, apparatus and methods are provided for optical communication which tolerates the tight filtering effects from concatenation of reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers (ROADMs). An exemplary system includes a receiver configured to receive a Narrow-Band Differential-Phase-Shift-Keyed (NB-DPSK) optical signal. The receiver includes a Delay Line Interferometer (DLI) with a path length difference of less than approximately one bit period and a detector for detecting DLI output to form an electrical signal. The bandwidth of the NB-DPSK optical signal is less than approximately one-half of a first bit rate of a transmitter from which the NB-DPSK optical signal is received. The electrical signal is processed to decode transmitted data. A corresponding transmitter amplifies a first input signal having a first bit rate; and drives a DPSK modulator after amplification to generate the NB-DPSK optical signal, which has a bandwidth less than approximately one-half of the first bit rate.

Abstract: A self-polarization diversity technique to combat PMD in a direct-detection optical OFDM system. This technique does not require any dynamic polarization control, and can simultaneous compensate PMD in a WDM system with one device. Simulation results show that this technique virtually completely eliminates the PMD impairments in direct-detection optical OFDM systems.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for transmitting alternate-polarization phase-shift-keyed data. The output of a laser is modulated to optically encode electronic data using phase shift keying (PSK) to generate an optical signal. An alternate polarization PSK (APol-PSK) signal is generated by alternating the polarization of the optical signal using a modulator such that successive optical bits have substantially orthogonal polarizations.