Patent ID: 7116861

Claim:
A method of monitoring and controlling the bit error rate (BER) in an optical communication network where the optical receiver in the optical transmission network is a monolithic photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) chip, comprising the steps of: decombining on-chip a combined channel signal received from the network with an integrated demultiplexer on the RxPIC chip according to a wavelength grid of the demultiplexer; monitoring a real time bit error rare (BER) of a decombined channel signal received at the RxPIC chip; communicating, via a service channel, the BER to an optical transmitter source that is the source of origin of the combined channel signal; adjusting the chirp of a channel signal modulator at the optical transmitter source generating the monitored channel signal; adjusting the wavelength grid of the demultiplexer to enhance the bit error rate (BER) of a decombined channel signal; monitoring again the BER to determine if an acceptable level for the BER has been achieved; and repeating either of or both of the steps of adjustment if an acceptable level for the BER has not been achieved.