Aspects of a symmetric coherent optical mixer are described. In one example, the coherent optical mixer includes a group of symmetric MMI couplers and a group of symmetric bend waveguides optically coupled between the MMI couplers. The group of symmetric MMI couplers can include an input for a local light reference signal, an input for a modulated light signal, and outputs for detection of data from the modulated light signal. The group of symmetric MMI couplers can include four MMI couplers, each of which comprises a 22 MMI coupler of symmetric dimension. The group of symmetric bend waveguides can include a symmetric layout of four 90 bend waveguides optically coupled between the four MMI couplers. The coherent optical mixer, which can be implemented as a Silicon Photonics (SiPh) device, provides better performance as a 90 degree optical hybrid than prior mixer devices due to its symmetric layout.

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.

An apparatus including first, second, third and fourth photodiodes, optical mixer and first and second optical power splitters. The optical mixer has two or more input ports, three output ports to output first, second and third mixtures of light corresponding to input light received from the input ports and transferred to the output ports. The first splitter has an input port and first and second output ports, to transmit part of one of the mixtures of light from one of the output ports to the first photodiode and a remaining part of the one mixture of light from the other one of the output ports to the third photodiode. The second splitter has an input port and first and second output ports, the second splitter to transmit part of another one of the mixtures of light from one of the output ports to the first photodiode and a remaining part of the other one of the mixtures of light from the other one of the output ports to the fourth photodiode. The third output port of the optical mixer is connected to transmit a different one of the mixtures of light to the second photodiode.

A method and structure for equalization in coherent optical receivers, Block-based LMS (BLMS) algorithm is one of the many efficient adaptive equalization algorithms used to (i) increase convergence speed and (ii) reduce implementation complexity. Since the computation of the equalizer output and the gradient of the error are obtained using a linear convolution, BLMS can be efficiently implemented in the frequency domain with the constrained frequency-domain BLMS (FBLMS) adaptive algorithm. The present invention introduces a novel reduced complexity constrained FBLMS algorithm. This new approach replaces the two discrete Fourier transform (DFT) stages required to evaluate the DFT of the gradient error, by a simple frequency domain filtering. Implementation complexity can be drastically reduced in comparison to the standard constrained FBLMS. Furthermore, the new approach achieves better performance than that obtained with the unconstrained FBLMS in ultra-high speed coherent optical receivers.

An optical transmitter, an optical receiver, and an optical transmission method are disclosed. The optical transmitter includes an optical signal generator, N spreaders, N pairs of data modulators, and a combiner, where the optical signal generator generates N optical carriers; an i.sup.th spreader spreads an i.sup.th optical carrier, to obtain a spread optical signal having two subcarriers; splits the spread optical signal into a first optical signal and a second optical signal; and delays the second optical signal to obtain a third optical signal; an i.sup.th pair of data modulators modulate the first optical signal and the third optical signal to obtain a pair of modulated optical signals, transmit the pair of modulated optical signals to the combiner, where the pair of modulated optical signals reaching the combiner differ by 1/(4 fsi) in time domain; and the combiner combines, into one optical signal, N pairs of modulated optical signals.

An optical receiver is provided that includes a detector array of multiple detector elements, and processing circuits coupled to the multiple detector elements. The detector array is configured to receive light from an external source, mix the light with light from a local oscillator to generate a spatial fringe across the detector array. The multiple detector elements are configured to convert respective portions of the spatial fringe incident on the multiple detector elements to corresponding electrical signals. The processing circuits are configured to process the electrical signals. This includes the processing circuits configured to sum those of the corresponding electrical signals from one or more of the multiple detectors, and subtract the sum from a second sum of those of the corresponding electrical signals from one or more other of the multiple detectors.

A transceiver having an improved transmitter optical signal to noise ratio, and methods of making and using the same.

An optical reception apparatus (1) of the present invention includes: a local oscillator (11) outputting local oscillation light (22); an optical mixer (12) receiving a multiplexed optical signal (21) and the local oscillation light, and selectively outputting an optical signal (23) corresponding to the wavelength of the local oscillation light from the multiplexed optical signal; a photoelectric converter (13) converting the optical signal (23) output from the optical mixer into an electric signal (24); a variable gain amplifier (15) amplifying the electric signal (24) to generate an output signal (25) whose output amplitude is amplified to a certain level; a gain control signal generating circuit (16) generating a gain control signal (26) for controlling the gain of the variable gain amplifier (15); and a monitor signal generating unit (17) generating a monitor signal (27) corresponding to the power of the optical signal (23) using the gain control signal (26).

A skew compensation apparatus and method. In an optical system that uses optical signals, skew may be generated as the optical signals are processed from an input optical signal to at least two electrical signals representative of the phase-differentiated optical signals. A compensation of the skew is provided by including an optical delay line in the path of the optical signal that does not suffer the skew (e.g., that serves as the time base for the skew measurement). The optical delay line introduces a delay T.sub.skew equal to the delay suffered by the optical signal that is not taken as the time base. The two signals are thereby corrected for skew.

An integrated coherent receiver that is configured to receive an optical signal and receive a local oscillator (LO) source from a remote location. The integrated coherent receiver is configured to extract phase and frequency information carried by the optical signal using the LO source from the remote location.