Patent ID: 8718484

Claim:
An optical transmitter for generating a composite modulated optical signal for transmission over a fiber optic link to a remote receiver comprising: a data source for outputting an information-containing signal of an M-bit bytes, where M is a positive integer; an encoder coupled to the data source for separating each byte received from the data source into a first digital signal representing the first K bits of the M-bit byte, and a second digital signal representing the remaining M-K bits of each M-bit byte, where K is a positive integer less than M; a semiconductor laser coupled to said encoder for receiving the first digital signal representing said first K bits of said M-bit byte and configured to be directly modulated by said first K bits of said M-bit byte to produce a modulated output optical signal; and a phase modulator electrically coupled to said encoder for receiving said second digital signal and having an optical input coupled to an output of the semiconductor laser and operative to phase modulate the modulated output optical signal with the second digital signal representing the remaining (M-K) bits of each said M-bit byte to produce a composite modulated optical signal representing the information-containing signal.