Patent ID: 7542679

Claim:
An optical system comprising: an optical transmitter configured to transmit information over two channels, each channel being at a different wavelength; two optical filters, each of the optical filters including a band filter configured to filter at least one optical channel and a periodic filter configured to receive the at least one optical channel from said band filter and provide a single filtered optical channel and shape the bandwidth of the single filtered, shaped optical channel, wherein each of the band filters has a bandwidth at least twice as large as a periodic bandwidth of each of the periodic filters, wherein each of said band filters includes a filter selected from a group consisting of a fiber Bragg grating, a Fabry-Perot filter and a thin film filter, wherein each of said periodic filters includes a filter selected from a group consisting of a Mach-Zehnder filter, a Michelson interferometer, and an arrayed waveguide; and an optical receiver positioned proximate the optical filter in the network and configured to receive at least two filtered shaped optical channels, wherein said optical receiver is configured to receive and convert the two filtered, shaped optical channels into two electrical signals and combine the two electrical signals into one electrical signal.