Method and apparatus for optical transmission

1. A method for APol-DPSK transmission comprising:

modulating an input optical signal according to a precoded electronic data signal by differential phase shift keying between two optical bits separated by an even number of bit periods to generate an encoded optical signal;

alternating the polarization of the encoded optical signal using a modulator such that successive optical bits have substantially orthogonal polarizations to generate an APol-DPSK signal; and

demodulating the APol-DPSK signal using an even bit delay line interferometer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the modulation is performed by a phase modulator driven by a sinusoidal RF voltage.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the modulation is performed by a phase modulator driven by a train of square pulses.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the input optical signal is provided having a polarization oriented at a predetermined angle such that the polarization of successive optical bits of the transmitted APol-DPSK signal are substantially orthogonal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the modulation is performed by a Mach-Zehnder modulator including a polarization rotation device in at least one arm.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the polarization rotation device is a half-wave plate.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a sinusoidal RF voltage.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a train of square pulses running at half the bit rate.

9. A method of APol-DPSK transmission comprising:

modulating an optical signal according to a precoded electronic data signal by differential phase shift keying between two optical bits separated by an even number of bit periods and performing polarization alternating such that successive optical bits have substantially orthogonal polarizations to generate an APol-DPSK signal;

wherein said modulating and said polarization alternating are performed simultaneously by a Mach-Zehnder modulator including a polarization rotation device in at least one arm, and

wherein input signals to both arms of the Mach-Zehnder modulator have polarizations that are the same.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the polarization rotation device is a half-wave plate.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising demodulating the APol-DPSK signal using an even bit delay line interferometer.

12. An optical transmitter for APol-DPSK transmission comprising:

a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator having a half-wave plate in one arm, wherein input optical signals to both arms of the Mach-Zehnder modulator have polarizations that are the same; and

drive circuitry, coupled to the MZ modulator for driving the MZ modulator using a precoded data signal to simultaneously provide polarization alternation and optical data encoding of an optical signal received by the MZ modulator using differential phase shift keying between two optical bits separated by an even number of bit periods to generate an APol-DPSK signal.

13. The transmitter of claim 12 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a sinusoidal RF voltage.

14. The transmitter of claim 12 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a train of square pulses running at half the bit rate.

15. The transmitter of claim 12 wherein the Mach-Zehnder modulator comprises two complementary output ports, and wherein the transmitter further comprises a polarization beam combiner for combining outputs from the two output ports of the Mach-Zehnder modulator.

16. The transmitter of claim 12 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a sinusoidal RF voltage.

17. The transmitter of claim 12 wherein at least one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator is driven by a train of square pulses running at half the bit rate.

18. An optical transmission system for APol-DPSK transmission comprising:

an optical phase-shift-keying (PSK) data modulator driven by a precoded electronic data signal to produce an optical DPSK signal, wherein the electronic data to be transmitted is optically encoded by the PSK data modulator as differential phase shift keying between two optical bits separated by an even number of bit periods;

a polarization alternator, optically coupled to the data modulator, to provide polarization alternation to the optical DPSK signal to produce an APol-DPSK signal; and

a demodulator, comprising an even bit delay line interferometer.