A Fast Method to Simulate the PDL Impact on Dual-Polarization Coherent Systems

Polarization-dependent loss (PDL) is regarded as a major distortion in dual-polarization coherent systems. Due to its statistical characteristics, a time-consuming Monte Carlo simulation is usually used to evaluate its penalty. In order to accelerate the simulation speed, a more rapid method, the reversed channel method, is proposed and verified. Compared with the Monte Carlo simulation, for example 10
⁵
iterations, simulation time is reduced from 200 h to 15 min, i.e. 800 times less, whereas the accuracy is not degraded. The reversed channel method also indicates that not only the accumulative PDL and amplified spontaneous emission levels but also their distribution profiles along the transmission line affect the system performance.