Patent ID: 7826752

Claim:
An agile coherent optical system comprising: an agile optical transmitter including a client interface configured to receive electrical signals; a signal processing unit configured to process the electrical signals and produce electrical RF signals as waveforms having both amplitude and phase characteristics; and an optical transport unit receiving the electrical RF signals and including a vector modulator capable of transporting information as optical signals having waveforms and data rates corresponding to the electrical RF signals provided by the signal processing unit, while preserving the amplitude and phase characteristics of the electrical RF signals; and, an agile optical receiver including an optical transport unit including a polarization diversity coherent receiver capable of receiving information as an optical signal having waveforms and data rates from the agile optical transmitter and producing electrical RF signals preserving the amplitude and phase characteristics of the waveform, wherein the polarization diversity coherent receiver includes: a polarization controller having an output; an adjustable Mach-Zehnder interferometer having an input connected to the output of the polarization controller and having first and second outputs; a first balanced receiver including an input connected to the first output of the adjustable Mach-Zehnder interferometer; a second balanced receiver including an input connected to the second output of the adjustable Mach-Zehnder interferometer; a local oscillator having an output; a splitter having an input connected to the output of the local oscillator, having a first output connected to the input of the first balanced receiver, and having a second output connected to the input of the second balanced receiver; a signal processing unit configured to process the electrical RF signals from the optical transport unit and produce electrical signals containing the information carried by the waveforms; and, a client interface configured to receive and transmit the electrical signals from the signal processing unit.