Impact of the statistics of second-order polarization-mode dispersion on system performance

Summary form only given. Increasing the bit rate to 10 Gbit/s and beyond in a single channel for the terrestrial optical links is one of today´s major challenges. At 10 Gbit/s, both first- and second-order polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) are important impairments, which have been already studied theoretically and experimentally. It has already been shown that the impact of second-order PMD is magnified by chromatic dispersion. However, the statistical point of view was not analyzed. In this paper, we will first show the statistics of second-order PMD, and we will explain why second-order PMD may not significantly reduce the maximum tolerable PMD if only first-order was considered.