Patent ID: 8126338

Claim:
A repeaterless differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) and/or on-off keying (OOK) transmission system, comprising: a repeaterless fiber optic cable having an input end and an output end; an optical transmitter including means for converting an electrical data input signal into an optical data signal representation thereof, for outputting into the input end of said fiber-optic cable; a coherent optical receiver for receiving said optical data signal from the output end of said fiber-optic cable, said optical receiver including means for converting said optical data signal into an electrical data output signal, comprising: heterodyne detection means receptive of the optical data signal for preserving phase distortions in the signal produced by chromatic dispersion during passage through the fiber-optic cable; an optical-to-electrical (O/E) converter receptive of an output optical data signal from said heterodyne means, for converting the signal into an electrical signal; electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) means for receiving the electrical data signal from said O/E converter to compensate for the chromatic dispersion in said signal; means for processing a compensated electrical output signal from said compensation means to provide an electrical data output signal; and wherein said electronic dispersion compensation means includes: a switchable electronic dispersion compensator (EDC) and intermediate frequency (IF) processor, for receiving said electrical signal from said O/E converter, to process the signal and provide a chromatic dispersion compensated (CDC) output signal; and a baseband RF processor for receiving said CDC output signal, and converting the signal into baseband.