Patent ID: 8705986

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: receiving an optical signal; supplying, from a plurality of outputs of a Fourier transform circuit, frequency domain data in response to time domain data associated with the optical signal; determining a first parameter based on components of the frequency domain data supplied from selected ones of the plurality of outputs of the Fourier transform circuit, said first parameter being indicative of a phase difference between selected ones of the plurality of components; determining a second parameter indicative of a chromatic dispersion of the optical signal based on said first parameter; determining a frequency response of the chromatic dispersion based on said second parameter; and processing said plurality of outputs of the frequency domain representation of the received signal based on the frequency response of the chromatic dispersion, wherein the time domain data has an associated baud frequency, and selected ones of the plurality of outputs of the Fourier transform circuit are associated with components of the frequency domain data that are spectrally spaced from one another by the baud frequency, the method further comprises: calculating an average value of the first parameter over a predetermined time period.