Optical communication of interleaved symbols associated with polarizations

1. An apparatus comprising a coherent optical transmitter, the coherent optical transmitter comprising:

a first modulator for generating a signal having a first polarization;

a second modulator for generating a signal having a second polarization; and

a symbol interleaver configured to:

receive a first symbol stream and a second symbol stream,

direct one portion of symbols of the first symbol stream to the first modulator and another portion of the symbols of the first symbol stream to the second modulator modulator, and

direct one portion of symbols of the second symbol stream to the first modulator and another portion of the symbols of the second symbol stream to the second modulator.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interleaver is configured to:

direct the symbols of the first symbol stream in an alternating manner to the first modulator for modulation onto the signal having the first polarization and to the second modulator for modulation onto the signal having the second polarization;

direct the symbols of the second symbol stream in a corresponding alternating manner to the first modulator for modulation onto the signal having the first polarization and to the second modulator for modulation onto the signal having the second polarization.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interleaver is configured to:

direct every first of a respective pair of symbols of the first symbol stream to the first modulator and every second of the respective pair of symbols of the first symbol stream to the second modulator; and

direct every first of a respective pair of symbols of the second symbol stream to the first modulator and every second of the respective pair of symbols of the second symbol stream to the second modulator.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the coherent optical transmitter further comprises:

a first forward error correction encoder configured to apply redundancy to a first bit stream to generate a first encoded bit stream; and

a first symbol mapper configured to generate the first symbol stream from the first encoded bit stream.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the coherent optical transmitter further comprises:

a polarization beam combiner configured to generate a polarization division multiplexed optical signal by combining the signal having the first polarization and the signal having the second polarization.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising an optical receiver, the optical receiver comprising:

a front-end circuit configured to convert the optical signal into a first and second digital electrical signals corresponding to the first and second polarizations; and

a processor configured to:

deinterleave symbols of the first and second polarizations to generate deinterleaved polarization data; and

process the deinterleaved polarization data to decode a payload data.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the processor of the optical receiver is configured to

symbol demap the deinterleaved polarization data; and

forward error correction decode the deinterleaved polarization data that has been demapped.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the processor of the optical receiver is configured to

perform a symbol probability density function (PDF) calculation on the deinterleaved polarization data; and

provide an output of the PDF calculation to assist in forward error correction decoding.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first symbol stream and the second symbol stream are independent.

10. An apparatus comprising a coherent optical transmitter, the coherent optical transmitter comprising:

a first modulator configured to generate a signal having a first polarization;

a second modulator configured to generate a signal having a second polarization; and

a symbol interleaver configured to

receive data associated with a first symbol stream and data associated with a second symbol stream,

direct a first portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream to the first modulator and a second portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream to the second modulator, and

direct a first portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream to the first modulator and a second portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream to the second modulator.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the interleaver is configured to:

direct portions of the data associated with the first symbol stream in an alternating manner to the first modulator for modulation onto the signal having the first polarization and to the second modulator for modulation onto the signal having the second polarization;

direct portions of the data associated with the second symbol stream in a corresponding alternating manner to the first modulator for modulation onto the signal having the first polarization and to the second modulator for modulation onto the signal having the second polarization.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the portions of the data associated with the first symbol stream and the portions of the data associated with the second symbol stream are each a number of input bits that define a symbol.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the portions of the data associated with the first symbol stream and the portions of the data associated with the second symbol stream are each symbols.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the interleaver is configured to

direct every first portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream to the first modulator and every second portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream to the second; and

direct every first portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream to the first modulator and every second portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream to the second.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the coherent optical transmitter further comprises:

a forward error correction encoder configured to apply redundancy to the data associated with the first symbol stream, and to the data associated with the second symbol stream, that are directed to the first modulator; and

a symbol mapper configured to generate an interleaved symbol stream from the data associated with the first symbol stream, and the data associated with the second symbol stream, that is directed to the first modulator after redundancy application, wherein the first modulator is configured to modulate an optical signal with the interleaved symbol stream to generate the signal having the first polarization.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the coherent optical transmitter further comprises:

a forward error correction encoder configured to apply redundancy to the first portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream, and the first portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream, that are directed to the first modulator; and

a symbol mapper configured to generate an interleaved symbol stream from the first portion of the data associated with the first symbol stream, and the first portion of the data associated with the second symbol stream that is directed to the first modulator after the application of redundancy, wherein the first modulator is configured to modulate an optical signal with the interleaved symbol stream to generate the first polarization.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the first symbol stream and the second symbol stream are independent.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising

a coherent optical receiver configured to decode a received optical signal with interleaved polarizations, the coherent optical receiver configured to deinterleave polarizations of the received optical signal prior to symbol demapping.

19. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a

coherent optical receiver configured to decode a received optical signal with interleaved polarizations, the coherent optical receiver configured to deinterleave the interleaved polarizations in a manner corresponding to the coherent optical transmitter.

20. A method comprising:

receiving, at a transmitter, first and second bit streams,

mapping the first bit stream to a first symbol stream, and mapping the second bit stream to a second symbol stream;

directing a first subset of symbols of the first symbol stream toward a first modulator configured to produce a first optical signal having a first polarization, and directing a second subset of symbols of the first symbol stream toward a second modulator configured to produce a second optical signal having a second polarization, and

directing a first subset of symbols of the second symbol stream toward the first modulator and a second subset of symbols of the second symbol stream toward the second modulator.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising

modulating the first optical signal based on the first subsets; and

modulating the second optical signal based on the second subsets.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the directing of the first and second subsets of the first symbol stream is performed in an alternating manner, and wherein the directing of the first and second subsets of the second symbol stream is performed in a manner corresponding to the alternating manner.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein directing of the first and second subsets of the first symbol stream directs every first of a respective pair of symbols of the first symbol stream to the first modulator for modulation of the optical signal and directs every second of the respective pair of symbols of the first symbol stream to the second modulator for modulation of the second optical signal; and wherein the directing of the first and second subsets of the second symbol stream directs every first of a respective pair of symbols of the second symbol stream to the first modulator for modulation of the first optical signal and every second of the respective pair of symbols of the second symbol stream to the second modulator for modulation of the second optical signal.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

applying redundancy to the first and second bit streams before said mapping.

25. The method of claim 20 wherein the first and second bit streams are independent.