Dispersing data rate to mitigate electromagnetic interference

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of processing channels, each of which produces a transmit signal at a corresponding different data rate and includes:
• an elastic buffer configured to store a corresponding input data stream;
• a serializer configured to obtain the corresponding input data stream from the elastic buffer and produce an output data stream at a corresponding data rate;
• and
• a driver configured to receive the output data stream from the serializer to drive a corresponding optical transmitter to produce a corresponding optical transmit signal for transmission via a corresponding port of an optical network device onto an optical fiber,
• wherein the serializer in a first processing channel of the plurality of processing channels is configured to produce a first output data stream at a main data rate, and serializers of other processing channels are configured to produce output data streams at data rates that are offset by increasing incremental amounts from the main data rate based on one or more idle data blocks being inserted into elastic buffers of the other processing channels to offset the data rates from the main data rate.