1. Field of the Art
The disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more specifically, to using equalizer coefficients to improve performance and diagnostics in an optical receiver system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical communication systems typically communicate data over a plurality of channels corresponding to different phases and/or polarizations of the optical signal. For example, in a dual-polarization coherent optical communication system, data is communicated over four channels: (1) a horizontally polarized in-phase (HI) channel; (2) a horizontally polarized quadrature (HQ) channel; (3) a vertically polarized in-phase (VI) channel; and (4) a vertically polarized quadrature (VQ) channel. While the data communicated over the different channels is typically aligned relative to a common clock when transmitted by the transmitter, delay (or skew) may be introduced into one or more of the channels based on characteristics of the transmitter, receiver, and/or the optical fiber. As a result, the relative timing of the data in the various channels may be misaligned at the receiver, causing degradation of the recovered data.