Chromatic Dispersion Monitoring Based on Variance of Received Optical Power

For lightwave transmission systems employing advanced modulation formats such as phase-shift keying (PSK) and quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM), chromatic dispersion monitoring based on average variance of optical power has been demonstrated. Theoretical analyses are verified by simulations, and experiment results show that the variance of optical power at the receiver is a simple and effective statistical parameter to monitor the residual chromatic dispersion of a transmission link.