Patent ID: 6915077

Claim:
A system for increasing throughput and channel capacity of an optical communications network comprising; a plurality of transmitter data processors for time division multiplexing a plurality of data channel inputs received into a plurality of temporal and spatial data streams; a plurality of optical sources being directly modulated by said plurality of temporal data streams into a plurality of temporally modulated optical signals; a plurality of polarization modulators for spatially modulating the polarization states of said plurality of temporally modulated optical signals with said plurality of spatial data streams received from said plurality of transmitter data processors into a plurality of space-time modulated optical signals; a wavelength division multiplexer for wavelength division multiplexing said plurality of space-time modulated optical signals from said plurality of polarization modulators; a fiber optic cable receiving and transmitting wavelength division multiplexed optical signals from said wavelength division multiplexer; a wavelength division demultiplexer for demultiplexing said wavelength division multiplexed optical signals transmitted by said fiber optic cable; a plurality of polarization demodulators for polarization demodulating a plurality of wavelength division demultiplexed optical signals received from said wavelength division demultiplexer into a plurality of polarization demodulated data streams; a plurality of detectors for direct detection of a plurality of temporal data streams from said plurality of polarization demodulators; a plurality of receiver data processors for demultiplexing said plurality of temporal data streams from said plurality of detectors and a plurality of spatial data streams from said plurality of polarization demodulated data streams into a plurality of data output channels; whereby channel capacity and throughput of said optical communications network is substantially increased.