Patent ID: 8849126

Claim:
An electronic phase conjugation system associated with a communication system comprising: a fiber optic link disposed between a transmitter and a receiver, the fiber optic link supporting multi-rate optical channels including a high-speed express channel; an amplifying element coupled to the fiber optic link to improve power symmetry, the amplifying element compensating for impairment of an incoming high-order optical signal, the amplifying element supporting the multi-rate optical channels including the high-speed express channel; an electronic phase conjugation element implemented non-symmetrically at the fiber optic link, the electronic phase conjugation element compensating for impairment of the incoming high-order optical signal due to the fiber optic link, the electronic phase conjugation element comprising: a coherent detector responsive to the incoming high-order optical signal carrier as sub-bands from the fiber optic link, the coherent detector converting the incoming high-order optical signal to a final in-phase electrical signal and a final quadrature electrical signal the coherent detector comprising: a first optical-to-electrical converter converting in-phase optical components to two in-phase electrical components; a second optical-to-electrical converter converting quadrature optical components to two quadrature electrical components; and a first difference node generating the final in-phase electrical signal in response to a difference between the two in-phase electrical components; and a second difference node generating the final quadrature electrical signal in response to a difference between the two quadrature electrical components; and an in-phase/quadrature modulator that generates a phase conjugated outgoing optical signal by modulating and shifting the phase of the final in-phase electrical signal and the final quadrature electrical signal to perform phase conjugation, the in-phase/quadrature modulator converting the final in-phase electrical signal and the final quadrature electrical signal into optical signals and combining the in-phase optical signal and the quadrature optical signal to generate the phase conjugated outgoing optical signal, thereby compensating for impairment of the incoming high-order optical signal and extending a system reach of the high-speed express channel.