Single-end measurement of polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers with polarization-dependent loss

A new reflectometric technique is proposed to measure the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fiber links with polarization-dependent loss. Based on the PMD dynamical equation, some important relations can be obtained to make the backreflection measurement of PMD possible. Thus we can perform the single-end spectral resolved measurement of the differential group delay and the differential attenuation slope in both frequency and time domains simultaneously. In principle, this technique can be realized using continue-wave or pulsed probe lights and based on far-end Resnel reflection or distributed Rayleigh backscattering. Some experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed method.