Insight into PMD regimes: an analysis on buried optical fibres

Abstract

Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) field measurements on deployed buried fibres showed that the PMD variation over the 1520 to 1570 nm wavelength was stochastic. The PMD variation over the 98-hour period for each wavelength was directional and limited; they are due to the presence of random mode coupling along the fibre length and limited influence from extrinsic perturbations over time, respectively. PMD variation in the wavelength domain showed that the mean first-order PMD (FO-PMD) value is independent of whether the FO-PMD statistics of a fibre link approaches the Maxwellian theoretical distribution; the key factor is sufficient random mode coupling. The accompanying second-order PMD (SO-PMD) statistics, with FO-PMD statistics approaching Maxwellian, followed the PDF given by Foschini et al. (1999). The FO- and SO-PMD statistics at a given wavelength gave nonstochastic PMD distributions with time.