Patent ID: 8873970

Claim:
A method for generating a 400 Gb/s single channel optical signal from multiple subchannels comprising the steps of: with a modulator driven by a radio frequency, generating multiple peaks from a continuous lightwave source; with modulation format modulators responsive to said multiple peaks, generating modulated respective non-return-to-zero NRZ subchannels; with respective intensity modulators, carving the modulated NRZ subchannels to return-to-zero RZ subchannels, said intensity modulators having a duty cycle less than 50%, with an optimal said duty cycle being proximate 40%, for enabling said subchannels with non-overlapping peaks for improved filtering; and with an optical component, combining said subchannels into a single channel signal aggregating the bit rate of each of the subchannels, said optical component being a flat top optical component for increased subsequent receiver sensitivity.