Patent ID: 8265490

Claim:
A transamplifier comprising: a plurality of directly modulated optical transmitters, each optical transmitter receives at least one input signal and transmits a corresponding transmitter output optical signal that is modulated based on the input signal, each transmitter output optical signal having a respective transmitted power level and polarization; a polarization maintaining (PM) optical multiplexer having a plurality of inputs and at least one output, each transmitter output optical signal being provided to a respective one of the plurality of inputs with a substantially same polarization, the PM optical multiplexer being configured to transmit a combined optical signal that includes each of the corresponding transmitter output optical signals with the substantially same polarization; a PM optical amplifier having an input and an output, the input of the PM optical amplifier receiving the combined optical signal, the PM optical amplifier transmits an amplified combined optical signal at the output of the PM optical amplifier such that the amplified combined optical signal has substantially the same polarization; and a phase modulator that receives the amplified combined optical signal, the phase modulator being configured to modulate the amplified combined optical signal and provide a corresponding modulated combined optical signal at an output of the phase modulator.