Patent ID: 8818204

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a light source and a light modulator, wherein the light modulator includes: a low-rate encoder configured to encode logic levels of a low-rate data signal having a low data rate into a low-rate encoded signal; a high-rate encoder configured to encode logic levels of a high-rate data signal having a high data rate that is greater than the low data rate into a high-rate encoded signal; and an amplitude level generator configured to modulate the light source based on logic levels of the high-rate data signal and logic levels of the low-rate data signal to produce modulated light that concurrently conveys the logic levels of the low-rate data signal and the logic levels of the high-rate data signal, wherein the amplitude level generator is configured to generate amplitude modulation levels at a modulation rate that is at least as high as the high data rate based on logic levels of the low-rate data signal and logic levels of the high-rate data signal, and to amplitude modulate the light source based on the amplitude modulation levels, and wherein the amplitude level generator is further configured to generate the amplitude modulation levels based on logic levels of the low-rate encoded signal and corresponding logic levels of the high-rate encoded signal.