Deleterious system effects due to low-frequency polarization scrambling in the presence of nonnegligible polarization-dependent loss

We experimentally investigate the deleterious system effects due to polarization scrambling at frequencies of tens of kilohertz. In the presence of nonnegligible instantaneous polarization-dependent loss (PDL), transmission systems may suffer from performance variations due to the polarization-scrambling-induced intensity modulation. In particular, an instantaneous PDL of 2.6 dB can induce ~3 dB power penalty at a 29-dB optical signal-to-noise ratio.