The statistics of polarization-dependent loss in optical communication systems

Author

Mecozzi, Antonio ; Shtaif, Mark

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., L´´Aquila Univ., Italy

Volume

14

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

313

Lastpage

315

Abstract

In this letter, we study the statistics of polarization-dependent loss (PDL) in optical systems and evaluate its evolution with system length. We show rigorously that within the range of conceivable parameters in optical links, the distribution of PDL is Maxwellian when it is expressed in decibels. The accumulation of the mean-square PDL with system length stays linear in most systems, but may assume an exponential growth in very long systems with large PDL. The analytical results are compared with numerical simulations and an excellent agreement is observed.

Keywords

optical fibre communication; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre losses; optical fibre theory; statistical analysis; Maxwellian distribution; exponential growth; mean-square PDL; optical communication systems; optical links; polarization-dependent loss; polarization-dependent loss statistics; polarization-mode dispersion; system length; very long systems; Optical attenuators; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber polarization; Optical losses; Optical network units; Optical noise; Optical polarization; Page description languages; Signal to noise ratio; Statistics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.986797

Filename

986797