An optical transmission network includes an optical transmitter photonic
integrated circuit (TxPIC) chip, utilized in an optical transmitter and
has a plurality of monolithic modulated sources integrated for multiple
signal channels on the same semiconductor chip is provided with channel
equalization at the optical receiver side of the network that permits one
or more such integrated modulated sources in the TxPIC chip to be out of
specification thereby increasing the chip yield and reducing
manufacturing costs in the deployment of such TxPIC chips. FEC error
counts at the FEC decoder on the optical receiver side of the network
includes counters that accumulate a plurality of bit pattern-dependent
error counts based on different N-bit patterns in the received data bit
stream. The accumulated counts of different N-bit patterns are utilized
to provide for corrections to threshold and phase relative to the bit eye
pattern as well as provided for weight coefficients for the optical
receiver equalization system. The deployment of this type of equalization
in a digital OEO REGEN network substantially reduces, if not eliminates,
the need for dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) or EDFAs in an optical
link of the network and enhances the optical receiver tolerance to
chromatic dispersion (CD) so that an increase in chip yield is realized
for TxPIC chips not operating with acceptable operational parameters,
particularly with a desired frequency chirp parameter relative to at
least one of the TxPIC modulated sources.