Optical transmitter and optical transmission system using the same

Abstract

In a system for simultaneously optically transmitting a plurality of digital modulation signals using an analog SCM transmission technique, the degree of degradation of the waveform of a transmission signal or the magnitude of distortion thereof differs depending on bands, whereby there arises a difference in transmission quality among channels. Therefore, an analog signal to be transmitted is converted into a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converting portion, after which the digital signal is divided, by a hierarchy separating portion, into a plurality of groups of digital information depending on degrees of importance in constructing the original analog signal. A modulating portion digitally modulates carriers having different frequencies which are respectively assigned to the groups of digital information. A multiplexing portion frequency-multiplexes and simultaneously optically transmits all the digital modulation signals. In this case, the carrier corresponding to the digital information having a higher degree of importance is set on a lower frequency side, and the carrier corresponding to the digital information having a lower degree of importance is set on a higher frequency side. Consequently, it is possible to minimize the effect of the degradation and the distortion caused in the transmission on received and reproduced data, whereby high-quality transmission is possible.