Patent ID: 8873952

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: determining an optimum number of subcarriers based on a target data rate; determining an appropriate power level for a phase modulator to cause the phase modulator to produce the optimum number of subcarriers, comprising: calculating the appropriate power level using a theoretical model when the target data rate is changed; determining required power levels for all possible subcarrier numbers and storing said power levels in a look-up table; and checking the table to find an appropriate power level when the target data rate is changed; and applying the determined appropriate power level via a controller to the phase modulator to produce said optimum number of subcarriers; wherein said optimum number of subcarriers enables an optical-orthogonal frequency division multiplex (O-OFDM) based variable rate transmitter with automatic control by a controller to produce an optimum setting based on the target data rate.