Patent ID: 7844180

Claim:
An optical device, comprising: one or more delay lines, at least one of the one or more delay lines configured to introduce a time shift into at least one of a plurality of input signals to provide one or more of the plurality of input signals with a plurality of different time shifts; one or more modulators, at least one of the one or more modulators configured to modulate an optical power of at least one of the plurality of input signals, to provide one or more of the plurality of input signals with a plurality of different optical power levels; an optical multiplexer, configured to multiplex the plurality of input signals into a multiplexed signal including a plurality of components corresponding to the plurality of input signals; a birefringent optical fiber, configured to receive the multiplexed signal and introduce a frequency shift into at least one of the plurality of components to produce an optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) signal, wherein an amount of the frequency shift introduced into the at least one of the plurality of components corresponds to the optical power level of the at least one of the plurality of components; and a power equalizer, configured to adjust the optical power of one or more of the plurality of components whereby the plurality of components have substantially similar optical power levels.