Article: A Polarization Optimized PMD Source For PMD-Related Performance Evaluation Of 40/100G Systems

The market transition in fiber optic communication systems to increase speeds from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, and beyond is well underway. As this transition occurs, polarization mode dispersion (PMD) has more and more of an impact on system performance. PMD generally causes the two principal polarization components of a light signal to travel at different speeds and hence spreads the bit-width of the signal. This causes an increase in bit-error rate (BER) and service outage probability. Unlike other system impairments such as chromatic dispersion (CD), the PMD effect on the system is random in nature and changes rapidly with time, making it difficult to mitigate.