Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for far-end monitoring of transmitter IQ skew in a DSCM system are described. Soft symbols for a given subchannel and a corresponding mirror subchannel are used as joint inputs to a MIMO equalizer. The hard decision symbols for the given subchannel and mirror subchannel are used as references to compute the equalizer coefficients. An estimated phase or estimated transmitter IQ skew is computed for at least the given subchannel using the equalizer coefficients. The computation is repeated to obtain estimated phase or estimated transmitter skew for all subchannels. The transmitter IQ skew is computed using the estimates from all subchannels. The computation is performed for each polarization. The computed transmitter IQ skew is communicated back to the transmitter via optical path (for correcting the skew).

Abstract: Methods and devices for IQ time skew and conjugation compensation and calibration of a coherent transmitter or transceiver are described. A pilot tone is combined with a digital data signal such that relative powers of the pilot tone in each of two frequency bands of the transmitted data signal may be detected by a pilot tone detector and used to calculate the time skew between I and Q modulation channels of the transmitter. A transmitter DSP applies IQ time skew bias to the data signal to compensate for any calculated IQ time skew. The pilot tone detector also provides the transmitter DSP with the information necessary to detect phase conjugation of the optical signal, which can be corrected by inverting the polarity of the data signal or changing the phase bias point of the optical modulator.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for coherent transmitter calibration are provided that employ direct detection (DD) using one single photodetector (PD). The provided method and apparatus do not require hardware for coherent reception, or additional ADCs for quality control. An additional optical tone is added to a QAM optical signal that is outside the band of the QAM optical signal. The result of this is that after direct detection, there is a correlation between the real and imaginary parts, and the imaginary part can be recovered with a Hilbert transform. The estimated QAM optical signal obtained by direct detection is used to perform a transmitter factory calibration method to calibrate for one or more transmitter impairments and/or to perform in-line self-calibration.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for IQ time skew calibration in a coherent transceiver are described. A four-channel signal is received. A set of inputs is constructed for a 4×8 MIMO equalizer by converting the four-channel signal into four complex inputs that each have a phase shift corresponding to an estimated carrier frequency offset. The set of inputs further includes conjugate replicas of the four complex inputs. Using output from the 4×8 MIMO equalizer, equalizer coefficients are calculated by minimizing error between the MIMO output and a reference signal. Receiver and transmitter IQ skew are estimated using the equalizer coefficients, by converting the equalizer coefficients form the time domain to the frequency domain to determine receiver and transmitter IQ differential phase responses, which are indicative of respective receiver and transmitter IQ skew in the time domain. Skew compensation is then performed.

Abstract: Methods and devices for power imbalance compensation and calibration of a coherent transmitter or transceiver are described. A pilot tone is combined with a digital data signal such that relative amplitudes of the pilot tone in each of four transmitted optical data channels may be detected by a pilot tone detector and used to calculate any power imbalances between I/Q phase channels and/or X/Y polarized channels of the transmitter. The pilot tone detector applies gain to the data signal of the transmitter to compensate for any calculated power imbalances. Because the pilot tone is combined with the digital data signal, its amplitude in each received channel is proportional to the data signal power of that channel.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for IQ time skew calibration in a coherent transceiver are described. A four-channel signal is received. A set of inputs is constructed for a 4×8 MIMO equalizer by converting the four-channel signal into four complex inputs that each have a phase shift corresponding to an estimated carrier frequency offset. The set of inputs further includes conjugate replicas of the four complex inputs. Using output from the 4×8 MIMO equalizer, equalizer coefficients are calculated by minimizing error between the MIMO output and a reference signal. Receiver and transmitter IQ skew are estimated using the equalizer coefficients, by converting the equalizer coefficients form the time domain to the frequency domain to determine receiver and transmitter IQ differential phase responses, which are indicative of respective receiver and transmitter IQ skew in the time domain. Skew compensation is then performed.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for coherent transmitter calibration are provided that employ direct detection (DD) using one single photodetector (PD). The provided method and apparatus do not require hardware for coherent reception, or additional ADCs for quality control. An additional optical tone is added to a QAM optical signal that is outside the band of the QAM optical signal. The result of this is that after direct detection, there is a correlation between the real and imaginary parts, and the imaginary part can be recovered with a Hilbert transform. The estimated QAM optical signal obtained by direct detection is used to perform a transmitter factory calibration method to calibrate for one or more transmitter impairments and/or to perform in-line self-calibration.