Comparison of different PMD compensator configurations based on outage probability

As the bit rate of fiberoptic transmission systems increases to 10 Gbit/s, 40 Gbit/s, and beyond, polarization mode dispersion (PMD) inherent in the optical fiber and present in the optical components of the system becomes a limiting factor to error-free transmission. Numerous optical and electronic techniques have been proposed to mitigate the effects of PMD, and several of these solutions are now becoming commercially available. There is, of course, a trade-off between the complexity (and therefore the cost) of a PMD compensator and the performance of the device. In this study, we compare the performance of three relatively simple PMD compensator configurations.