Consistent with the present disclosure, data, in digital form, is received by a transmit node of an optical communication system, and converted to an analog signal by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to drive a modulator. The modulator, in turn, modulates light at one of a plurality of wavelengths in accordance with the received data forming a plurality of corresponding carriers. The carriers are modulated according to one of a plurality of modulation formats and then optically combined to form a superchannel of a constant maximum capacity, for example. Accordingly, the number of carriers and the bit rate for each carrier remain constant for each modulation format to realize a constant maximum capacity. The superchannel is then transmitted over an optical communication path to a receive node. At the receive node, the superchannel is optically demultiplexed from a plurality of other superchannels. The plurality of carriers of the superchannel are then supplied to a photodetector circuit, which receives additional light at one of the optical signal carrier wavelengths from a local oscillator laser. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is provided in the receive node to convert the electrical signals output from the photodetector into digital form. The output from the ADC is then filtered in the electrical domain, such that optical demultiplexing of the carriers is unnecessary.