Single-stage all-order PMD compensator using a single polarization controller

In high-speed and/or long-haul transmission systems with data rates of 40 Gbit/s and beyond, the system degradation due to 1st- and also higher-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is a significant issue. So far, PMD compensators have been proposed for 1st- and higher-order PMD. In this paper, we focus on two types of optical PMD compensators, single-stage first-order compensator and double-stage compensator with higher-order canceller, and estimate their performances. Moreover, we propose a single-stage first & higher-order compensator as a “degenerate” version of the double-stage one by reducing the number of monitoring parameters (circuit) and the number of controllers (PCs). The functions of 1st- and higher-order PMD compensators are integrated into a single-stage configuration, with signal distortion monitoring at the output of the polarizer. The compensation performance of three PMD compensators is investigated in a 10.7 Gbit/s NRZ transmission system. The results show that the proposed single-stage compensator can effectively suppress the degradation due to 2nd-order PMD.