On-line simultaneous monitoring of polarization mode dispersion and chromatic dispersion

We have developed new expressions for power fading and average power fading owing to polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and chromatic dispersion in terms of the angle of precession of the output state of polarization about the PMD vector. Based on these expressions, a simple and novel pilot-tone-based technique for simultaneous monitoring of chromatic dispersion and PMD is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique; these results agree well with the theoretical analysis.