Influence of polarisation mode dispersion on the effect of cross phase modulation in optical WDM transmission

In optical wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transmission, nonlinear coupling of co-propagating modulated light waves due to cross phase modulation (XPM) is one of the main sources of signal degradation. The strength of the XPM effect, in turn, is strongly influenced by the evolution of light-polarisations of the WDM-carriers. In this contribution, physical models that numerically evaluate system degradation due to XPM, assuming various scenarios of the evolution of light polarisations, are introduced and applied to WDM transmission in an optimised optical link. Finally these system simulations are compared to re-circulating loop experiments.