Statistical characterization of the output state of polarization in deployed single-mode fibers

Winston T Ireeta; Vitalis Musara; Lorinda Wu; Andrew W R Leitch

doi:10.1364/OL.35.002049

Statistical characterization of the output state of polarization in deployed single-mode fibers

Opt Lett. 2010 Jun 15;35(12):2049-51. doi: 10.1364/OL.35.002049.

Authors

Winston T Ireeta¹, Vitalis Musara, Lorinda Wu, Andrew W R Leitch

Affiliation

¹ Optical Fibre Research Unit, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 77000, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 6031 Port Elizabeth, South Africa. winston.ireeta@nmmu.ac.za

PMID: 20548382
DOI: 10.1364/OL.35.002049

Abstract

Changes in the optical fiber properties due to both intrinsic and extrinsic variations result in polarization mode dispersion and state of polarization (SOP) becoming stochastic in nature. The statistics for first-order PMD and the second-order PMD approach the Maxwellian and Foschini et al. [IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett.12, 293 (2000)] distributions, respectively. In this Letter, we investigate a theoretical statistical distribution that corresponds to output SOP variations. The SOP variations can either be with wavelength (for buried fiber) or with time (for aerial fiber). Our results show that the statistics of the relative SOP changes approach the distribution proposed by Foschini et al..