Patent ID: 7577367
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. A device, comprising: a plurality of analog signal mixers to respectively produce a plurality of analog modulation control signals that respectively carry a plurality of data channels, each analog signal mixer configured to receive and mix a data channel encoded as a duobinary encoded signal and a local oscillator signal at a local oscillator frequency different from local oscillator frequencies received by other analog signal mixers to produce a corresponding analog modulation control signal; and an optical modulator to receive an input CW laser beam at an optical carrier frequency and to modulate the input CW laser beam in response to the analog modulation control signals to produce an optical output beam which comprises a plurality of different optical subcarriers at optical subcarrier frequencies different from the optical carrier frequency and respectively related to the local oscillator frequencies of the local oscillator signals, wherein each optical subcarrier carries a baseband signal comprising information of a corresponding data channel of the data channels so that the different optical subcarriers carry baseband signals corresponding to the plurality of data channels, respectively, and wherein the optical modulator is an optical Mach-Zehnder modulator which comprises: an optical splitter which splits the input CW laser beam into a first optical carrier beam and a second optical carrier beam, both at the optical carrier frequency; a first AC phase modulator to apply the analog modulation control signals with a 90-degree phase shift between two analog modulation control signals adjacent in frequency to modulate the first optical carrier beam to produce a first modulated optical signal; a second AC phase modulator to apply the analog modulation control signals with a 90-degree phase shift between two analog modulation control signals adjacent in frequency to modulate the second optical carrier beam to produce a second modulated optical signal, each analog modulation control signal in the first AC phase modulator being phase shifted by 90 degrees relative to each corresponding analog modulation control signal in the second AC phase modulator; first and second DC phase modulators to modulate the first and the second optical signals, respectively, and configured to modulate an optical carrier component at the optical carrier frequency of the first modulated optical signal to be phase shifted by 90 degrees relative to an optical carrier component at the optical carrier frequency of the second modulated optical signal; and an optical combiner which combines the first and second modulated optical signals to form the output optical beam carrying the plurality of data channels, wherein each data channel is carried by only one of the different optical subcarriers and the optical subcarrier frequencies are different from the optical carrier frequency by amounts corresponding to the local oscillator frequencies of the local oscillator signals.