Patent ID: 8160455

Claim:
An apparatus for transmitting optical signals comprising: a digital data source; an optical signal source; and a driving circuit coupled to the optical signal source and operable to convert a data signal into a drive signal provided to the optical signal source; wherein: the driving circuit is configured to receive a data stream from the digital data source; the driving circuit is configured to generate for each bit in the data stream a pulse having a shape that is a function of an n-bit window in the data stream including the bit; the n-bit window has a length n; n is an integer greater than PΔν/T; P is the sum of dispersion times length for all portions of an optical channel coupled between the optical signal source and an optical receiver, in picoseconds squared; Δν is the largest frequency deviation in the spectrum of an optical signal output from the optical signal source; and T is the bit period, in picoseconds, of the data stream.