Method and apparatus for maintaining a pre-determined ratio of a pilot tone power and a mean optical output power of an optical signal

1. A method of controlling a pilot tone signal, comprising the steps of:

a) providing a detection path that provides a digitally sampled signal representing an optical signal, wherein the optical signal comprises a pilot tone signal;

b) determining an AC component and a DC component of the optical signal from the same digitally sampled signal;

c) calculating a ratio of the AC and DC components; and

d) varying an amplitude of a pilot tone signal in accordance with a difference between the calculated ratio and a pre-determined value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the DC component is calculated as an average of samples from the digitally sampled signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the AC component is calculated as an average root mean square value.

4. A method comprising the steps of:

a) generating an optical signal in accordance with an AC bias corresponding to a pilot tone signal and a DC bias;

b) providing a detection path that provides a digitally sampled signal representing the optical signal;

c) determining an AC component and a DC component of the optical signal using the same digitally sampled signal; and

d) varying at least one of the DC bias and the AC bias in accordance with a difference between a pre-determined value and a ratio of the AC and DC components.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein step d) comprises varying only the DC bias.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein step d) comprises varying only the AC bias corresponding to the amplitude of the pilot tone signal.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein step d) comprises varying both the DC bias and the AC bias.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the DC component is calculated as an average of samples from the digitally sampled signal.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein the AC component is calculated as an average root mean square value.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the optical signal is generated by one of an electro-absorptive laser and a direct modulation laser.

11. An apparatus comprising:

an optical source coupled to provide an optical signal in response to a DC bias and an AC bias corresponding to a pilot tone signal;

a processor coupled to compute each of an AC component and a DC component of the optical signal from a same digitally sampled signal; and

a feedback control coupled to vary at least one of the DC bias and the AC bias in accordance with a difference between a pre-determined value and a ratio of the AC and DC components.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the feedback control varies only the DC bias.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the feedback control varies only the AC bias corresponding to the amplitude of the pilot tone signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the feedback control varies both the AC bias and the DC bias.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the optical source is one of an electro-absorptive laser and a direct modulation laser.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising a detection path to provide the digitally sampled signal to the processor, wherein the detection path comprises:

a sensor providing an electrical signal corresponding to a sensed optical signal; and

an analog-to-digital converter, wherein the analog-to-digital converter generates the digitally sampled signal from the electrical signal of the sensor.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the sensor comprises a PIN photodiode.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the sensor comprises a back-facet photodiode of the optical source.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the DC component is calculated as an average of samples from the digitally sampled signal.

20. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the AC component is calculated as an average root mean square value.