Patent ID: 7587143

Claim:
A method for improving communication in an optical communication system having spectrally shaped pulses comprising the steps of: sending at least one first spectrally shaped pulse over a channel connecting a transmitter and a receiver; individually reading at least a phase component of the spectrally shaped pulse received at the receiver; comparing at least the phase component of the spectrally shaped pulse received at the receiver to a phase component of a predetermined spectrally shaped pulse; obtaining a preemphasis coefficient that describes the difference between at least the phase component of the spectrally shaped pulse received at the receiver to the phase component of the predetermined spectrally shaped pulse, the preemphasis coefficient representing an approximation of the phase distortion in the communication channel between the transmitter and the receiver for a particular frequency; and modulating a frequency component of a second spectrally shaped pulse by multiplying the second spectrally shaped pulse with the preemphasis coefficient before sending the second spectrally shaped pulse to the receiver, the multiplication being capable of adjusting both an amplitude and a phase of the one or more frequency components.