Patent ID: 7254325

Claim:
A system for monitoring a performance characteristic of an intensity modulated phase shift keying optical signal, comprising: a splitter, operable to receive an intensity modulated phase shift keying optical signal from an optical network and route at least a portion of the signal to a first detector; the first detector, coupled to the splitter and operable to receive, the portion of the optical signal and generate an electrical signal based on the received optical signal without demodulation; a second detector, operable to receive a signal indicative of the electrical signal, measure a first performance characteristic of the intensity modulated phase shift keying optical signal based on the signal indicative of the electrical signal, and generate a first performance signal based on the first performance characteristic; a third detector, coupled to the first detector and operable to receive a second electrical signal from the first detector, measure a second performance characteristic of the intensity modulated phase shift keying optical signal based on the second electrical signal and generate a second performance signal based on the second performance characteristic; and a divider, coupled to the second detector and the third detector and operable to receive the first and second performance signals and to measure a third performance characteristic of the intensity modulated phase shift keying optical signal based on the first and second performance signals.