Abstract

Polarization mode dispersion (PMD), a potentially limiting impairment in high-speed long-distance fiber-optic communication systems, refers to the distortion of propagating optical pulses due to random birefringences in an optical system. Because these perturbations (which can be introduced through manufacturing imperfections, cabling stresses, installation procedures, and environmental sensitivities of fiber and other in-line components) are unknowable and continually changing, PMD is unique among optical impairments. This makes PMD both a fascinating research subject and potentially one of the most challenging technical obstacles for future optoelectronic transmission. Mitigation and compensation techniques, proper emulation, and accurate prediction of PMD-induced outage probabilities critically depend on the understanding and modeling of the statistics of PMD in installed links. Using extensive data on buried fibers used in long-haul high-speed links, the authors discuss the proposition that most of the temporal PMD changes that are observed in installed routes arise primarily from a relatively small number of “hot spots” along the route that are exposed to the ambient environment, whereas the buried shielded sections remain largely stable for month-long time periods. It follows that the temporal variations of the differential group delay for any given channel constitute a distinct statistical distribution with its own channel-specific mean value. The impact of these observations on outage statistics is analyzed, and the implications for future optoelectronic fiber-based transmission are discussed.

© 2006 IEEE

Anisotropic hinge model for polarization-mode dispersion in installed fibers

Jinglai Li, Gino Biondini, William L. Kath, and Herwig Kogelnik
Opt. Lett. 33(16) 1924-1926 (2008)

Characterization of the time dependence of polarization mode dispersion

Antonio Mecozzi, Cristian Antonelli, M. Boroditsky, and M. Brodsky
Opt. Lett. 29(22) 2599-2601 (2004)

Statistics of the polarization mode dispersion dynamics

Antonio Mecozzi, Cristian Antonelli, and Misha Brodsky
Opt. Lett. 32(20) 3032-3034 (2007)

Correlation theory of polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

Qiang Lin and Govind P. Agrawal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20(2) 292-301 (2003)

Polarization mode dispersion compensator field trial and field fiber characterization

Daniel L. Peterson, Bryan C. Ward, Kent B. Rochford, Paul J. Leo, and Greg Simer
Opt. Express 10(14) 614-621 (2002)