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The polarization-nulling technique utilizes the different properties of optical signal and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise for accurate monitoring of the optical-signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) in dynamic optical networks. However, the performance of this technique is bound to be deteriorated if the signal is depolarized by polarization-mode dispersion and/or nonlinear birefringence or the ASE noise is partially polarized due to polarization-dependent loss (PDL) in the transmission link. The authors analyze these effects on the performance of the polarization-nulling technique and introduce several techniques to overcome these problems. These improved versions of the polarization-nulling techniques could monitor the OSNR with accuracy of better than plusmn1 dB, even when the differential group delay is as large as 60 ps. These techniques could also negate the effect of the signal depolarization caused by nonlinear birefringence in a highly nonlinear transmission link. The effect of the partially polarized ASE noise due to PDL is found to be not severe in most cases, as long as the PDL/span is smaller than 0.2 dB. To verify the possibility of using the polarization-nulling technique in real systems, the OSNR of the wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) signals transmitted through a 120-km-long aerial fiber link is measured for one week. No significant degradation in the monitoring accuracy is observed during this long-term measurement. In addition, the performance of the polarization-nulling technique in an ultralong-haul transmission link is evaluated by using a 640-km-long recirculating loop. The results show that this technique could accurately measure the OSNR in the transmission link longer than 3200 km. From these results, the authors conclude that the polarization-nulling technique is well suited for monitoring the OSNR in dynamic WDM networks [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We developed an analytical model for the statistics of polarization-dependent gain (PDG) in both copumped and counterpumped fiber Raman amplifiers (FRAs). The validity of this model was confirmed by using experimental data and numerical simulations. The results show that the PDG in a counterpumped FRA cannot be neglected since it is only about 3 times smaller than that in a copumped FRA. Using the proposed model, we also evaluated the effects of various parameters on the PDG including the wavelength difference between the signal and pump, degree-of-polarization (DOP) of pump laser, polarization-mode dispersion, and fiber loss at the pump wavelength. In addition, the proposed model was used to analyze the requirement of the DOP of pump for the suppression of PDG within 1 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report on the effect of the partially polarized amplified spontaneous emission noise on the Q-factor estimation by using optical signal-to-noise ratio. The result shows that this effect is negligible even in a long-distance transmission system (number of spans: <40) as long as the polarization-dependent loss per span is smaller than 0.2 dB [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report on the effects of nonlinear crosstalk on the optical polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems. An analytical model is presented to describe the effect of nonlinear crosstalk on the first-order PMD compensation. We also experimentally show that the performance of WDM systems could be degraded by nonlinear birefringence, even when the first-order PMD is completely compensated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report on the simple technique for monitoring the optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNRs) of wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) signals. This technique, based on the polarization-nulling method, was implemented simply by using a rotating quarter-wave plate and rotating linear polarizer. However, the performance of this technique could be affected by nonlinear birefringence and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD). The result shows that this technique is suitable for monitoring the OSNRs of highspeed (>10-Gb/s) WDM signals transported over the fiber link with low PMD [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]