Receiver optimization for 40 Gbit/s optical fiber systems with polarization mode dispersion

We show that the performance of on-off-keyed 40 Gbit/s optical fiber systems whose optical and electrical receiver filter bandwidths are optimized for polarization-mode dispersion is equivalent to the performance of the same systems in which the receiver filters are optimized for operation in the absence of PMD. We also observed an increase in the sensitivity of the performance with respect to variations in the receiver filter bandwidths in the return-to-zero format in systems with PMD when compared with PMD-free operation.