PMD-induced BER penalties in optically-amplifiedIM/DD lightwave systems

Abstract
The dependence of electrical SNR on polarisation-mode-dispersion (PMD) induced intersymbol interference in optically-amplified IM/DD lightwave systems is evaluated theoretically and experimentally. The results allow the cumulative probability of penalty for a system subject to Maxwellian probability distribution of PMD to be evaluated for various mean-PMD levels.