A digital optical network (DON) is a new approach to low-cost, more compact optical transmitter modules and optical receiver modules for deployment in optical transport networks (OTNs). One important aspect of a digital optical network is the incorporation in these modules of transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chips and receiver photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) chips in lieu of discrete modulated sources and detector sources with discrete multiplexers or demultiplexers.