PMD compensation in 10 Gbit/s NRZ field experiment using polarimetric error signal

Abstract

A technique for compensating for the polarisation mode dispersion of a 10 Gbit/s non-return to zero (NRZ) installed fibre link (45 km, 80 ps mean differential group delay), using a variable polarisation delay line and a set of polarisation controllers is presented. The variation of the output polarisation with frequency over the signal bandwidth was monitored using a frequency-resolving Stokes-polarimeter. A control loop is used to minimise the RMS deviation of the polarisation state at the receiver.