Patent ID: 8291281

Claim:
An optical transmitter and receiver, comprising: an applicable-condition storage unit that has stored in advance therein FEC techniques and applicable conditions in association with each other, the FEC techniques being applicable to a counterpart optical transmitter and receiver of the optical transmitter and receiver, and the applicable conditions being indicated by data reception states as applicable conditions for applying the FEC techniques to the counterpart transmitter and receiver; a measuring unit that measures a data reception state of receiving data transmitted from the counterpart optical transmitter and receiver; a technique selecting unit that determines an applicable condition satisfying the data reception state measured by the measuring unit from among the applicable conditions stored in the applicable-condition storage unit and selects a technique stored in the applicable-condition storage unit in association with the applicable condition; and a notifying unit that notifies the counterpart optical transmitter and receiver of the technique selected by the technique selecting unit, wherein the applicable-condition storage unit has stored therein predetermined ranges limited by a ratio of errors included in the data received by the optical transmitter and receiver as the applicable conditions, the measuring unit measures the ratio of the errors included in the data received by the optical transmitter and receiver, the technique selecting unit determines a range including the ratio of the errors measured by the measuring unit from among the ranges stored as the applicable conditions in the applicable-condition storage unit and selects a technique stored in the applicable-condition storage unit in association with the range.