Optical communication system

1 . An optical transmitter system, comprising:

M different selectable lasers, each of the M different lasers configured to generate an optical communication signal having a carrier optical frequency within a corresponding channel that is different than a carrier optical frequency and corresponding channel of each of other M−1 different lasers of the M lasers;

a controller configured to select and map N of the M selectable lasers based on feedback regarding a quality of one or more of the M different lasers, wherein N<M;

a switch selector configured to select the N of the M selectable lasers for transmission over an optical fiber to a second optical receiver system; and

a multiplexer configured to receive K input data streams and generate N laser data streams, wherein each of the N laser data streams modulates a carrier signal of the selected N lasers;

wherein a mapping of the K input data streams to the N laser data streams is modulated on each of the carrier signals of the selected N lasers; and

wherein MAC packets included as information within the modulated carrier signals of the N selected lasers include the mapping of the selection of the N of the M selectable lasers, thereby conveying the mapping to an optical receiver of the modulated carrier signals.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the switch selector selectively activates the N of the M lasers, wherein the unselected lasers are not activated.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the mapping of the N of the M selectable lasers is modulated on M lasers.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the K input data streams are mapped to the selected N lasers after the N of the M selectable laser are mapped.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein M is selected based on at least a projected end of life of the M different selectable lasers.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the N selected lasers are selected based on a signal quality of each of the transmission signals of each of the M lasers.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the N selected lasers are selected from the M lasers based on an estimated BER (bit error rate) of N modulated carrier signals.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the N selected lasers are selected to maintain a selected frequency spacing between each of the N carrier signals.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive feedback from a receiver of the N modulated lasers, and adaptively update the mapping of the N of the M selectable lasers based on the received feedback.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to track a history of the mapping over time, and adaptively influence the selection of the N selected laser based on the history of the mapping.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to code selected and non-selected lasers with a same code, and track a signal quality of both the selected and non-selected lasers.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive feedback from a receiver of the N modulated lasers, and adaptively adjust a coding of data streams of the modulated carriers.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the coding is across multiple carrier signals.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the coding is across carrier signals of the M selectable lasers.

15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the feedback includes a received signal quality which is tracked over time, and wherein coding is increased for select of the N modulated carrier signals as the received signal quality of one or more of the N modulated carrier signals degrades over time.

16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the feedback includes a received signal quality which is tracked over time, and wherein a bias current is increased for select of the N modulated carrier signals as the received signal quality of one or more of the N modulated carrier signals degrades over time.

17 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a set of M passband filters configured to out-of-band filter carrier signals of each of the M selectable filters.

18 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a second optical transmitter system associated with the second optical receiver system configured to generate a second set of carrier signals for transmission over the optical fiber to an optical receiver system associated with the optical transmitter system;

wherein the carrier frequencies (wavelengths) of the second set a carrier signals are selected to result in a frequency guard band between the second set of carrier signals and the carrier frequencies (wavelengths) of the M different lasers;

wherein the guard band is selected to reduce ICI between the optical transmitter system and the second optical transmitter system.

19 . A method, comprising:

generating, by each of a plurality of M different selectable lasers, an optical communication signal having a carrier optical frequency within a corresponding channel that is different than a carrier optical frequency and corresponding channel of each of other M−1 different lasers of the M lasers;

selecting and mapping, by a controller, N of the M selectable lasers based on feedback regarding a quality of one or more of the M different lasers, wherein N<M;

selecting, by a switch selector, the N of the M selectable lasers for transmission over an optical fiber to a second optical receiver system;

receiving, by a multiplexer, K input data streams, and generating, by the multiplexer, N laser data streams, wherein each of the N laser data streams modulates a carrier signal of the selected N lasers; and

modulating a mapping of the K input data streams to the N laser data streams on each of the carrier signals of the selected N lasers;

wherein MAC packets included as information within the modulated carrier signals of the N selected lasers include the mapping of the selection of the N of the M selectable lasers, thereby conveying the mapping to an optical receiver of the modulated carrier signals.