Apparatus and methods for timing tone based transmitter skew alignment in an optical communication system

Apparatus and method for transmitter alignment in an optical communication system are provided. In certain configurations, a method of correcting for transmitter skew is provided. The method includes generating an optical signal using a transmitter based on an in-phase (I) component and a quadrature-phase (Q) component of a transmit signal, the optical signal having a baud rate that is based on a timing tone. The method further includes receiving the optical signal as an input to a receiver, and generating a signal vector representing the optical signal using the receiver. The signal vector includes an I component and a Q component. The method further includes calculating a power of the timing tone based on processing the signal vector using a tone power calculator of the receiver, and correcting for a skew of the transmitter based on the calculated power.