High speed optical communication systems and methods with flexible bandwidth adaptation

1. A fiber optic system, comprising:

a transmitter configured to utilize any one of a plurality of modulation formats; and

a receiver communicatively coupled to the transmitter and configured to utilize any one of the plurality of modulation formats;

wherein the transmitter and the receiver are cooperatively configured to set a modulation format from the plurality of modulation formats based upon an average signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver instead of a worst case signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver; and

wherein the transmitter and the receiver utilize an in-band communication channel for signaling modulation format changes and utilize a blind system recovery mechanism to re-establish the in-band communication channel subsequent to a disruption that causes the in-band communication channel to fail based on any of a Loss of Frame (LOF), a Loss of Multi-frame (LOM), and a degradation in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and wherein the blind system recovery mechanism operates to establish the in-band communication channel and the blind system recovery mechanism uses a predetermined modulation format change cycle occurring at each of the transmitter and the receiver instead of end-to-end modulation mode signaling changes between the transmitter and the receiver.

2. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein the receiver is configured to determine signal-to-noise ratio through any of a bit error rate, a corrected forward error correction count, a symbol error rate, and a constellation estimate.

3. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitter data circuitry coupled to the transmitter; and

receiver data circuitry coupled to the receiver;

wherein one or more of the transmitter data circuitry and the receiver data circuitry is configured to buffer data such that any changes between the plurality of modulation formats are performed in a hitless manner.

4. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein:

a plurality of Optical Transport Network (OTN) timeslots are utilized at the fiber optic system, and wherein a number of the plurality of timeslots is based at least on client data demands.

5. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein, on start-up or recovery and without in-band communication, each of the transmitter and the receiver are configured to cycle through a predetermined sequence of the plurality of modulation formats.

6. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of modulation formats comprise Binary Phase Shift Keying, Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, 8-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, and 16-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.

7. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein each of the transmitter and the receiver are configured with a plurality of sub-channels.

8. The fiber optic system of claim 7 , wherein the transmitter and the receiver are cooperatively configured to reduce bandwidth by excluding failed subsystems associated with any of the plurality of sub-channels.

9. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , further comprising:

at least one intermediate optical transceiver between the transmitter and the receiver; and

a mechanism for signaling modulation format changes between the transmitter, the at least one intermediate optical transceiver, and the receiver.

10. The fiber optic system of claim 9 , wherein the mechanism for signaling is configured for any of the transmitter, the at least one intermediate optical transceiver, and the receiver to initiate a decrease in bandwidth due to degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio, and for the transmitter to initiate an increase in bandwidth due to degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio.

11. The fiber optic system of claim 1 , wherein the blind system recovery mechanism is performed without the in-band communication channel and comprises one of:

operating each of a plurality of sub-channels at a different modulation format to establish an in-band communication link on at least one of the plurality of sub-channels; and

operating each of the plurality of sub-channels at a fixed modulation format that is changed over a time period for each transmitter while each receiver cycles through all modulation formats over the time period to establish the in-band communication link.

12. An optical transceiver, comprising:

a transmitter configured to utilize any of a plurality of modulation formats, wherein the transmitter is communicatively coupled to a far end receiver; and

a receiver communicatively configured to utilize any of the plurality of modulation formats, wherein the receiver is communicatively coupled to a far end transmitter;

wherein the transmitter and the far end receiver are cooperatively configured to set a modulation format from the plurality of modulation formats based upon an average signal-to-noise ratio associated therewith instead of a worst case signal-to-noise ratio associated therewith;

wherein the receiver and the far end transmitter are cooperatively configured to set a modulation format from the plurality of modulation formats based upon an average signal-to-noise ratio associated therewith instead of a worst case signal-to-noise ratio associated therewith; and

wherein the transmitter and the receiver utilize an in-band communication channel for signaling modulation format changes and utilize a blind system recovery mechanism to re-establish the in-band communication channel subsequent to a disruption that causes the in-band communication channel to fail based on any of a Loss of Frame (LOF), a Loss of Multi-frame (LOM), and a degradation in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and wherein the blind system recovery mechanism operates to establish the in-band communication channel and the blind system recovery mechanism uses a predetermined modulation format change cycle occurring at each of the transmitter and the receiver instead of end-to-end modulation mode signaling changes between the transmitter and the receiver.

13. The optical transceiver of claim 12 , further comprising:

a first plurality of sub-channels transmitted by the transmitter; and

a second plurality of sub-channels received by the receiver;

wherein each of the first plurality of sub-channels and the second plurality of sub-channels utilizes one of the plurality of modulation formats.

14. The optical transceiver of claim 12 , wherein the receiver is configured to determine signal-to-noise ratio through any of a bit error rate, a corrected forward error correction count, and a constellation estimate, and wherein the receiver is configured to communicate the determined signal-to-noise ratio to the far end transmitter.

15. The optical transceiver of claim 12 , wherein the transmitter comprises configurable modulators configured to provide any of Binary Phase Shift Keying, Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, 8-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, and 16-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.

16. A flexible bandwidth adaptation method, comprising:

monitoring at least one aspect of an optical link at a network element;

responsive to the at least one aspect, selecting an improved modulation scheme from a plurality of modulation schemes for the optical link; and

when the improved modulation scheme is selected, changing to the improved modulation scheme;

wherein an effective throughput associated with the optical link is set based on an average signal-to-noise ratio instead of a worst case signal-to-noise ratio; and

wherein the optical link utilizes an in-band communication channel for signaling modulation format changes and utilizes a blind system recovery mechanism to re-establish the in-band communication channel subsequent to a disruption that causes the in-band communication channel to fail based on any of a Loss of Frame (LOF), a Loss of Multi-frame (LOM), and a degradation in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and wherein the blind system recovery mechanism operates to establish the in-band communication channel and the blind system recovery mechanism uses a predetermined modulation format change cycle occurring at each of a transmitter and a receiver instead of end-to-end modulation mode signaling changes between the transmitter and the receiver.

17. The flexible bandwidth adaptation method of claim 16 , wherein the monitoring comprises:

at an originating network element of the optical link, monitoring for transceiver health and client bandwidth demand; and

at a terminating network element of the optical link, monitoring for signal-to-noise ratio.

18. The flexible bandwidth adaptation method of claim 17 , further comprising:

the originating network element communicating to the terminating network element a degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio and a request to adapt to a different modulation scheme based thereon.

19. The flexible bandwidth adaptation method of claim 17 , further comprising:

at an intermediate network element of the optical link, monitoring for signal-to-noise ratio; and

communicating to the terminating network element a degradation in the signal-to-noise and a request to adapt to a different modulation scheme based thereon.

20. The flexible bandwidth adaptation method of claim 16 , further comprising:

prior to changing to the new modulation scheme, buffering data such that the change to the improved modulation scheme is hitless.