Digital demodulator architecture

A system comprising:

• means for receiving a digitized version of an optical signal;
• means for removing quadrature errors to generate a corrected series of data samples;
• means for performing frequency rotation on the corrected series of data samples to generate a frequency corrected series of data samples;
• means for removing, from the frequency corrected series of data samples, chromatic dispersion from horizontal and vertical polarization channels of a processed version of the optical signal;
• means for implementing an interpolation function that provides decimation on samples taken at substantially two+ε times the symbol rate;
• means for compensating for interference caused by polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization dependent loss (PDL);
• and
• means for tracking and correcting phase.

A method comprising:

• receiving a digitized version of an optical signal;
• removing quadrature errors to generate a corrected series of data samples;
• performing frequency rotation on the corrected series of data samples to generate a frequency corrected series of data samples;
• removing chromatic dispersion from horizontal and vertical polarization channels;
• implementing an interpolation function that provides decimation on samples taken at substantially two+ε times the symbol rate;
• compensating, after performing frequency rotation, the frequency corrected series of data samples for interference caused by polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization dependent loss (PDL);
• and
• tracking and correcting phase.