Title :
Measurement of the differential group delay in installed optical fibers using polarization multiplexed solitons
Author :
Bakhshi, Bamdad ; Hansryd, Jonas ; Andrekson, Peter A. ; Brentel, Jonas ; Kolltveit, Erling ; Olsson, Bengt-Erik ; Karlsson, Magnus
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Microelectron., Chalmers Univ. of Technol., Goteborg, Sweden
fDate :
5/1/1999 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We experimentally demonstrate a new technique for measurement of the differential group delay (DGD) in optical fibers using polarization-division multiplexed (PDM) solitons: the change in the separation of orthogonally polarized solitons propagating along different principal axes in a fiber equals the DGD at the signal wavelength. Based on this principle, we use PDM solitons to measure the accumulated DGD at different distances along a 400-km installed fiber. The measured DGD exhibits the expected square-root-of-length dependence, corresponding to a polarization-mode dispersion of 0.26 ps/km/sup 1/2/. The results are in excellent agreement with those obtained by a commercial instrument utilizing Jones matrix eigenanalysis.
Keywords :
delays; eigenvalues and eigenfunctions; matrix algebra; multiplexing; optical fibre communication; optical fibre polarisation; optical fibre testing; optical solitons; 400 km; Jones matrix eigenanalysis; PDM solitons; accumulated DGD; differential group delay measurement; expected square-root-of-length dependence; installed optical fibers; orthogonally polarized solitons; polarization multiplexed solitons; polarization-division multiplexed solitons; polarization-mode dispersion; principal axes; Delay; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fibers; Optical propagation; Optical pulses; Polarization mode dispersion; Pulse measurements; Solitons; Wavelength measurement;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
