In an optical data
transfer system, a beam modulator is configured to embed a set of data in an input beam. A multimode optical
waveguide network has an in-
coupling region for receiving the input beam. The multimode optical
waveguide network is configured to guide the input beam to an out-
coupling region of the multimode optical
waveguide network. A spatial coherent
detector is configured to measure a phase and an amplitude of an output
optical field at multiple locations. The output
optical field is at least partially defined by the input beam and thus exhibiting
distortion effects caused by the passage of the beam through the multimode waveguide network.
Signal processing is applied to an output of the spatial coherent
detector, in order to compensate for the
distortion effects, and thereby recover, from the output of the spatial coherent
detector, the set of data embedded in the input beam.