Patent ID: 8861636

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a network device, a block of symbols associated with a phase-modulated signal, the block of symbols including: data symbols that correspond to a payload associated with the signal, each of the data symbols including a plurality of bits, and control symbols; obtaining, by the network device, the control symbols from the block of symbols; processing, by the network device, the control symbols to identify an amount of phase noise associated with the control symbols; resetting, by the network device, a respective phase, associated with each of the data symbols, based on the amount of phase noise and at least one reference phase; interleaving, by the network device and as a result of resetting the phase, respective data samples, of each of the data symbols, with other data samples, where interleaving the respective data samples with the other samples: causes consecutive errors, associated with the respective data samples, to be spread out among the other data samples, and reduces an error rate relative to a prior error rate that existed before the interleaving; and performing, by the network device, forward error correction on the interleaved respective data samples, where the control symbols include at least one of: a first control symbol, associated with a first polarization, that includes: a first sample associated with an in-phase component of the first control symbol, and a second sample associated with a quadrature component of the first control symbol, or a second control symbol, associated with a second polarization, that includes: a third sample associated with an in-phase component of the second control symbol, and a fourth sample associated with a quadrature component of the second control symbol, where processing the control symbols further includes: multiplying the first control symbol by a first reference signal, associated with a first phase, to identify first phase noise associated with the first control symbol; and multiplying the second control symbol by a second reference signal, associated with a second phase, to identify second phase noise associated with the second control symbol, where the first phase noise corresponds to a complex signal that includes a real part and an imaginary part, where the real part is based on a difference between a first product defined by a real portion of the first control symbol multiplied by a real portion of the first reference signal and a second product defined by an imaginary portion of the first control symbol multiplied by an imaginary portion of the first reference signal, and where the imaginary part is based on a sum of a third product defined by the real portion of the first control symbol multiplied by the imaginary portion of the first reference signal and a fourth product defined by the imaginary portion of the first control symbol multiplied by the real portion of the first reference signal.