Novel differential-
phase shift keying optical receivers are taught based on multi-symbol
differential phase shift
keying detection (DPSK) aided by decision feedback (DF) from the decision bits in earlier symbol intervals. In accordance with the invention, the DF is directed to an optical front-end comprising multiple
Delay Interferometers (DIs) with multiple delays T, 2T, . . . , where T is the DPSK symbol duration. In one embodiment, the DF
bitstream is applied to electronically switch the polarity of DI outputs prior to additive combination and hard detection. In other embodiments the DF is applied to
active phase-shifting electrodes incorporated in the DIs. In additional embodiments the DF is applied to modified DI devices which not of the conventional Mach-Zehnder asymmetric two-arms type, but rather comprise either three or more arms with appropriate couplings, or two arms, one of which comprises a recirculating
delay line with
delay T. These embodiments comprise pairs of
active phase-shifting electrodes to be activated by the DF. In other embodiments the teachings of this invention for DPSK with DF are combined with the amplitude-shift
keying (ASK) modulation format, yielding improved
Differential Phase Amplitude Shift Keying (DPASK) systems with decision feedback. The resulting
receiver structures exhibit
improved performance trade-offs between error-rate, transmission distance and bitrate, compared with conventional DPSK systems, yet are simpler to realize than prior art multi-symbol and / or DF-aided optical DPSK systems.