10 Gb/s PMD compensation field experiment over 452 km using Principal State Transmission method

Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) in optical fibers is a major limiting factor for bit rates of 10 Gb/s and more. First-order PMD distorts the signal waveform because of a differential group delay (DGD) between two principal states of polarization defined in the fiber. The PMD compensation ability of the PST method has been demonstrated in high PMD fiber for 10 Gb/s transmission over 452 km of installed fiber. To the best of our knowledge, compensation on an installed single mode optical fiber (SMF) with an average DGD of 60 ps has been demonstrated for the first time. Stable operation of the PST method was confirmed in the presence of 2nd-order PMD through correlation of the measured DGD and bit error rate (BER).