Widely tunable, dispersion tolerant transmitter

1. An optical transmitter comprising:

(i) an electrical switch;

(ii) a laser array comprising a plurality of tunable laser elements; and

(iii) an Optical Spectrum Reshaper (OSR) used to reshape the output pulses from the laser elements in the laser array;

wherein the electrical switch takes an input electrical digital signal and selectively directs it to a specific laser element in the laser array.

2. An optical transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein the laser array is thermally tunable.

3. An optical transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein the laser elements in the laser array are directly modulated Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers.

4. An optical transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein Optical Spectrum Reshaper (OSR) is periodic.

5. An optical transmitter according to claim 1 , wherein the optical outputs of the individual laser elements in the laser array are selectively coupled to the OSR filter through a micro-electromechanical mirror (MEMS) directing element.

6. A widely tunable, dispersion tolerant transmitter comprising:

(i) an electrical switch element having an input and n outputs;

(ii) a tunable laser unit comprising an array of n laser elements;

(iii) a micro-electro-mechanical mirror; and

(iv) a periodic optical spectrum reshaper;

wherein the electrical switch selectively directs an input electrical data signal to directly modulate one of the n elements of the laser array so as to produce a frequency modulated signal, and wherein the micro-electro-mechanical mirror selectively directs the output of the modulated laser element to the optical spectrum reshaper so as to generate a amplitude modulated signal.