Theoretical analysis of reflectometric measurements in optical fiber links affected by polarization-dependent loss

The theory of reflectometric measurements of polarization-dependent effects in optical fiber links is generalized to the case of links with polarization-dependent losses. The results are a clean generalization of the no-loss case. In particular, a new technique for the reflectometric measurement of the mean polarization-dependent loss is proposed. Furthermore, the possibility of characterizing the local birefringence and the local dichroism of the link is discussed.