Statistics of Polarization-Induced Loss Ripples

The interaction of polarization mode dispersion and polarization dependent loss is shown to cause significant loss ripples (LRs) over the signal bandwidth. Polarization-induced LR is a random process; an analytical expression for its probability density function is found, and expressions for its cumulative density function and outage values are derived. Finally, the impact on system design of time varying LR is discussed in the light of the joint statistics of LR and differential group delay (DGD) and of LR and differential attenuation slope. The authors find that this effect cannot be neglected and should be accounted for within the filter cascade budget and that margin trade is possible as simultaneous occurrence of large DGD and large LR events is unlikely