First- and second-order PDM characterization of a 265 km dispersion managed link by means of Jones matrix method

Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fiber has become the most important limitation at bit rates exceeding 10 Gbit/s. PMD is a stochastic, dynamically changing process and consists besides zero-order DGD of higher order effects. Both the Differential Group Delay (DGD) and Principal States of Polarization (PSPs) vary randomly with the wavelength, temperature and stress along the fiber. Furthermore, they also drift randomly in time. This work reports the characterization of PMD up to second-order of a link of True Wave Reduced Slope (TWRS) fiber using the Jones matrix method. The total length of the link was 265 km and included dispersion compensating fiber modules and loss compensating optical amplifiers (EDFAs). For a range of 10 nm (1540-1550 nm), we have measured an average DGD value of 0.6 ps, and for the second-order PMD components, an average Polarization-Dependent Chromatic-Dispersion (PDCD) and depolarization of 0.1 ps/nm and 0.5 ps2, respectively