Patent ID: 9735886
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04B

Claim:
1. An optical receiver that comprises an extraction circuit, a pilot generator, a first coherent detector and a second coherent detector; wherein the extraction circuit is configured to (a) receive, from an optical communication link, a received signal that comprise first polarized data, second polarized data, a first polarized pilot component, and a second polarized pilot component and (b) extract the first and second polarized pilot components, the first polarized data and the second polarized data; wherein the first and second polarized pilot components belong to a pilot signal that has a pilot frequency that is within a frequency gap formed in a data spectrum that comprises frequencies of the first and second polarized data; wherein the first polarized data and the first polarized pilot components are of a first polarization and wherein the second polarized data and the second polarized pilot components are of a second polarization that differs from the first polarization; wherein the pilot generator is configured to coherently sum the first and second polarized pilot components and to generate first and second reconstructed pilot signals of substantially a same power; wherein the first coherent detector is configured to receive the first reconstructed pilot signal and the first polarized data and to output at least one first data stream; and wherein the second coherent detector is configured to receive the second reconstructed pilot signal and the second polarized data and to output at least one second data stream.