In this paper, the characteristics of higher-order PMD up to third order and its impact on transmission systems are mainly studied. Based on the concept of second order principal states of polarization (PSPs) put forward in the paper, the covered ranges of higher-order PMD parameters with the increasing instantaneous differential group delay (DGD) value are investigated by simulation. It shows that the upper covered range of PSP rotation rate decreases rapidly with increasing instantaneous DGD until the DGD reaches the PMD value of the fiber, and then continues to slowly decrease. This may cause serious signal distortion due to fast PSP rotation rate even DGD at the low value. Furthermore, to that of the second order PSP rotation rate and that of second order PMD vector magnitude, they increase simultaneously with increasing instantaneous DGD until the DGD reaches about 2 times PMD value of the fiber, then turn to decrease. This may has an impact on the performance of higher-order PMD compensators. At the same time, the simulation results show that higher-order PMD parameters can impose serious signal distortion on 40 Gbit/s systems and the higher PMD value, the higher higher-order PMD influence on signal distortion.

Date Published: 17 October 2001
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4581, Passive Components and Transmission Systems, (17 October 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.445045

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4581:
Passive Components and Transmission Systems
Chongcheng Fan; Norman S. Kwong, Editor(s)