Optical receiver and method of operation

Abstract

A receiver module () is disclosed for receiving an optical input signal and generating an electrical output signal from the optical input signal. The receiver module comprises an input () for receiving an optical input signal and a polarising beam splitter () for splitting one of the optical input signal and a local recovery optical signal. The receiver module also comprises a multiport optical coupler () for coupling the outputs of the polarisation beam splitter and the other of the optical input signal and local recovery optical signal and outputting a plurality of outputs. The receiver module further comprises a first photodetector unit () for individually photodetecting the outputs of the multiport optical coupler and an optical modulation unit () for using each of the photodetected outputs to modulate a respective local conversion optical signal, where each local conversion optical signal has a different frequency from the other local conversion optical signals. The receiver module also comprises an optical coupler () for coupling the modulated local conversion optical signals to generate an optical output signal and a second photodetector unit () for photodetecting the optical output signal to generate an electrical output signal. Also disclosed are a method () and a multichannel receiver ().