Vector distribution measurement of PMD in optical fiber links employing a wavelength-tunable SOP-OTDR

A measurement of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) vector distribution is implemented with a wavelength-tunable state-of-polarization-detection-based optical time domain reflectometry (SOP-OTDR). Derived from the dynamic equation between the PMD vector and the birefringence vector with a piecewise approximation method, we present an equation for piecewise expression of the relation between the two vectors based on the approximation that the second-order partial derivative of the PMD vector with respect to the length is negligible in each short-enough segment of optical fiber. Utilizing the birefringence vector distributions at three adjacent wavelengths, both the magnitude and the direction distributions of the PMD vector have been calculated through the numerical solution algorithm. The calculation results indicate that the measured magnitudes of PMD vectors are consistent with the statistical experience, which is the Maxwell probability distribution, and the second-order partial derivative magnitudes of the PMD vectors conform to the lognormal distribution. This method could provide a distributed approach for optical performance monitoring by PMD-related characteristics in optical fiber links.