Patent ID: 8086110

Claim:
An optical communication system comprising: a transmitter including: a data register having a plurality of outputs, each output comprising a separate data channel; a plurality of signal processors, each signal processor assigned to a corresponding data channel and each signal processor comprising: a first input to receive a signal from the corresponding data channel and one or more additional inputs to receive a signal from one or more adjacent data channels, a control input to receive a control signal generated at a receiver based upon a monitored characteristic of the received signal from the corresponding data channel, and logic to modify a characteristic of the signal from the corresponding data channel based upon the control signal and the signals from the one or more adjacent data channels; a plurality of laser modules, each laser module coupled to an output of a corresponding signal processor, wherein each laser module modulates the modified signal from its corresponding data channel onto an optical carrier signal having a selected wavelength; and an optical multiplexer coupled to an output of all the laser modules.