An optical transmitter transmits an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol in which only one-half of available subcarriers are modulated with data and the remaining subcarriers are suppressed by not modulating with data. The transmission is of duration equal to half the symbol period of the OFDM symbol, resulting in a half-cycle transmission. An optical receiver receives the half-cycle transmission OFDM symbol, regenerates the full time domain representation and recovers data modulated on the one-half of available subcarriers. The modulated subcarriers and the suppressed subcarriers alternate in the frequency domain.