Patent ID: 8064775

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: generating at least two lightwave carriers from a lightwave source, the carriers having fixed wavelength spacing; creating an up-subchannel and a down-subchannel orthogonal to one another and spaced apart based on a wavelength spacing from modulations of the lightwave carriers according to respective up-converted OFDM signals that are carrier suppressed; combining one lightwave from the up-subchannel and one lightwave from the down-subchannel into an optical channel for transmission over an optical fiber; splitting the lightwave source into two orthogonal polarization signals to provide cascading of the step of creating an up-subchannel and a down-subchannel orthogonal to one another and spaced apart based on the wavelength spacing from modulations of the lightwave carriers according to respective up-converted OFDM signals that are carrier suppressed; wherein said creating comprises each of the polarization signals being a distinct one of the lightwave source for generating a first set of two lightwave carriers and a second set of two lightwave carriers and the step of creating provides a first pair of the up-subchannel and down-subchannel corresponding to the first set of two lightwave carriers and a second pair of up-subchannel and down-subchannel corresponding to the second set of two lightwave carriers; and wherein said combining comprises combining one lightwave from the first pair of up-subchannel, one lightwave from the down-subchannel from the first pair, one lightwave from the second pair of up-subchannel, one lightwave from the down-subchannel from the second pair into an optical channel for transmission over an optical fiber.