A low-power coherent receiver is enabled with enhanced performance for intra-datacenter reach optical interconnection applications using several techniques. The first is a coherent skew adjustment technique which enables lower-power baud-rate ADC sampling and baud-rate-spaced coherent equalization. The second is a real-valued or mixed-valued low-power coherent equalization technique, where a single-tap real-valued 4×4 MIMO equalizer plus four real-valued or two mixed-valued single-input single-out (SISO) equalizers are used for simultaneous polarization recovery, in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) phase error correction, and bandwidth equalization. The third is a power-efficient dual-DSP architecture to enhance coherent receiver performance, in which a complementary low-speed coherent DSP is introduced for optimal I/Q phase error correction and constellation decision parameters determination through more sophisticated algorithms that are too power hungry to be implemented in the primary high-speed DSP.

A network or system in which a hub or primary node may communicate with a plurality of leaf or secondary nodes. The hub node may operate or have a capacity greater than that of the leaf nodes. Accordingly, relatively inexpensive leaf nodes may be deployed to receive data carrying optical signals from, and supply data carrying optical signals to, the hub node. One or more connections may couple each leaf node to the hub node, whereby each connection may include one or more spans or segments of optical fibers, optical amplifiers, optical splitters/combiners, and optical add/drop multiplexer, for example. Optical subcarriers may be transmitted over such connections, each carrying a data stream. The subcarriers may be generated by a combination of a laser and a modulator, such that multiple lasers and modulators are not required, and costs may be reduced. As the bandwidth or capacity requirements of the leaf nodes change, the number of subcarriers, and thus the amount of data provided to each node, may be changed accordingly. Each subcarrier within a dedicated group of subcarriers may carry OAM or control channel information to a corresponding leaf node, and such information may be used by the leaf node to configure the leaf node to have a desired bandwidth or capacity.

A method is provided for assessing the quality of an optical transmitter and/or its interoperability with a receiver. The method includes obtaining an optical signal output by an optical transmitter and performing coherent optical-to-electrical detection of the optical signal to produce an in-phase receive signal and a quadrature receive signal. The method further includes a computing device emulating a worst-case configuration of an optical fiber with which the optical transmitter is to be used, based on the in-phase receive signal and the quadrature receive signal to produce a noise contribution associated with the worst-case characteristics of the optical fiber and determining a figure of merit of the optical transmitter based on the noise contribution.

A system for estimating an imbalance between electrical-optical responses of an in-phase (I) channel and a quadrature (Q) channel in an optical amplitude and phase modulator (optical IQ modulator) includes an optical detector (PD), an analog-digital converter (ADC), and an imbalance operation unit that estimates an imbalance between electrical-optical responses of an I channel and a Q channel in the optical IQ modulator, wherein the imbalance operation unit includes an input signal information receiving unit that receives information regarding a first modulation signal, and an intensity information receiving unit that receives intensity information of the digitalized output signal from the ADC, and the imbalance operation unit estimates an imbalance between electrical-optical responses of an I channel and a Q channel in the optical IQ modulator using information regarding a first modulation signal and intensity information of the digitalized output signal.

In a coherent optical receiver device, the dynamic range considerably decreases in the case of selectively receiving the optical multiplexed signals by means of the wavelength of the local oscillator light, therefore, a coherent optical receiver device according to an exemplary aspect of the invention includes a coherent optical receiver receiving optical multiplexed signals in a lump in which signal light is multiplexed; a variable optical attenuator; a local oscillator connected to the coherent optical receiver; and a first controller controlling the variable optical attenuator by means of a first control signal based on an output signal of the coherent optical receiver; wherein the coherent optical receiver includes a 90-degree hybrid circuit, a photoelectric converter, and an impedance conversion amplifier, and selectively detects the signal light interfering with local oscillation light output by the local oscillator out of the optical multiplexed signals; and the variable optical attenuator is disposed in the optical path of the optical multiplexed signals in a stage preceding the photoelectric converter, inputs the optical multiplexed signals, and outputs them to the coherent optical receiver controlling the intensity of the optical multiplexed signals based on the first control signal.

A network or system in which a hub or primary node may communicate with a plurality of leaf or secondary nodes. The hub node may operate or have a capacity greater than that of the leaf nodes. Accordingly, relatively inexpensive leaf nodes may be deployed to receive data carrying optical signals from, and supply data carrying optical signals to, the hub node. One or more connections may couple each leaf node to the hub node, whereby each connection may include one or more spans or segments of optical fibers, optical amplifiers, optical splitters/combiners, and optical add/drop multiplexer, for example. Optical subcarriers may be transmitted over such connections, each carrying a data stream. The subcarriers may be generated by a combination of a laser and a modulator, such that multiple lasers and modulators are not required, and costs may be reduced. As the bandwidth or capacity requirements of the leaf nodes change, the number of subcarriers, and thus the amount of data provided to each node, may be changed accordingly. Each subcarrier within a dedicated group of subcarriers may carry OAM or control channel information to a corresponding leaf node, and such information may be used by the leaf node to configure the leaf node to have a desired bandwidth or capacity.

A transceiver comprises a transmitter including a light source, a modulator coupled to the light source, a driver that drives the modulator according to a set of driving conditions to cause the modulator to output optical signals based on light from the light source, and an output that passes first portions of the optical signals output by the modulator. The transceiver further comprises a first detector that detects second portions of the optical signals output from the modulator, and a receiver including a second detector that detects optical signals from an external transmitter.

Apparatus and method for digital signal constellation transformation are provided herein. In certain configurations, an integrated circuit includes an analog front-end that converts an analog signal vector representing an optical signal into a digital signal vector, and a digital signal processing circuit that processes the digital signal vector to recover data from the optical signal. The digital signal processing circuit generates signal data representing a signal constellation of the digital signal vector. The digital signal processing circuit includes an adaptive gain equalizer that compensates the signal data for distortion of the signal constellation arising from biasing errors of optical modulators used to transmit the optical signal.

Devices, methods for analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that perform high-dynamic range measurements based on optical techniques are disclosed. In one example aspect, an optical encoder includes a polarization rotator configured to receive a train of optical pulses, and an electro-optic (EO) modulator coupled to an output of the polarization rotator. The EO modulator is configured to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal and to produce a phase modulated signal in accordance with the RF signal. The optical encoder also includes a polarizing beam splitter coupled to the output of the EO modulator; and an optical hybrid configured to receive two optical signals from the polarizing beam splitter and to produce four optical outputs that are each phase shifted with respect to one another.

A transmission/reception device is configured to convert an optical signal based on a plurality of first optical signals having frequency bands different from each other into an electric signal and output the electric signal as a plurality of first electric signals; receive the plurality of first electric signals, change frequency bands of some or all of a plurality of second electric signals to narrow an interval between frequency bands of two second electric signals having frequency bands adjacent to each other, and output, as third electric signals, electric signals; to receive a plurality of the third electric signals, combine and output the plurality of third electric signals as a fourth electric signal; and receive the fourth electric signal, convert the fourth electric signal into an optical signal, and output the optical signal as a second optical signal.