Real-time polarization mode dispersion monitoring system for a multiple-erbium-doped fiber amplifier, dense wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber transmission by amplified spontaneous emission modulation and acousto-optic tunable fiber scanning techniques.

Without interruption or affecting the transmission of ordinary payload channels, we propose a real time polarization mode dispersion (PMD) monitoring system for long-haul, multiple erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical fiber transmission using modulated amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of one of the EDFAs as the supervisory (SV) signal source. An acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) at the receiver side is adopted to scan the spectrum of the transmitted ASE SV signal. Using the fixed-analyzer method, PMDs of different wavelength bands that range from 1545 to 1580 nm of a DWDM fiber-optic communication system can be found by adaptively changing the radio frequency of the AOTF. The resolution and the measuring range of the proposed monitoring system can be significantly improved by cascading the AOTFs at the receiver side.