Polarization-mode dispersion sensitivity and monitoring in 40-Gbit/s OTDM and 10-Gbit/s NRZ transmission experiments

Summary form only given. We established guidelines for the 40-Gbit/s system design with optimum dispersion compensation and optical power against chromatic dispersion and self-phase modulation (SPM). The signal distortion due to PMD remains a major limitation on transmission distance. This paper describes our experimental evaluation of PMD sensitivity in 40-Gbit/s OTDM transmission using a PMD emulator. We also found that the 40-GHz frequency component in the baseband signal is sensitive to waveform distortion due to PMD, and can be used for PMD monitoring. We also investigated PMD sensitivity and monitoring in 10-Gbit/s nonreturn to zero (NRZ) transmission experiments.