System for mitigating the effects of fiber dispersion by separate detection of two transmitted sidebands

A system for generating, transmitting, and receiving an optical double sideband signal, comprising:

• a generator for generating an optical carrier;
• means for line encoding an input data signal-to produce an encoded data signal;
• means for intensity modulating the optical carrier with the line encoded data signal to produce an optical double sideband signal;
• means for transmitting the optical double sideband signal over a fiber link;
• a first photodetector connected to the optical diplexing filter for photodetecting the upper sideband and a first equalizer for adaptively equalizing the upper sideband;
• a second photo detector connected to the optical diplexing filter for photo detecting the lower sideband and a second equalizer for adaptively equalizing the lower sideband;
• a combiner connected to the first photodetector and the second photodetector for combining the photodetected upper sideband signal with the photodetected lower sideband signal;
• a detector for detecting a bit error rate of the resulting combined signal, the first and second equalizers being responsive to adjust the adaptive equalizing according to the bit error rate.