Automatic PMD compensator in a 160-Gb/s OTDM transmission over deployed fiber using RZ-DPSK modulation format

We report on a magneto- and electrooptically tuned dynamic polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensator that enabled error-free single-channel 160-Gb/s RZ-DPSK transmission over a 75-km SMF link with a mean differential group delay (DGD) of more than 30% of the bit period. Polarization scrambling and DOP measurements were utilized to automatically adapt the compensator. We present bit error rate (BER) measurements and describe the operation of the compensator in detail.