Synthesis and characterization of broad-band polarization-mode dispersion equalizers

A synthesis algorithm for the design of a finite impulse response polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) equalizer is described and used for characterization of the filter. Defined in terms of the residual maximum differential group delay, the performance of the equalizer is characterized as a function of the equalizer order and period. The synthesis algorithm uses spectral factorization to analytically find estimated equalizer control variables. The control variables are then used as initial guess for an optimization procedure that minimize the maximum differential group delay in the frequency range of interest.