Comparison of PMD-compensation techniques at 10 Gbit/s using an optical first-order compensator and electrical transversal filter

We present, for what is believed to be the first time, a direct comparison of two basically differently working polarization mode dispersion compensat ion techniques, the first-order compensator working in optical domain and a n adjustable transversal filter working in electrical domain. Based on nume rical simulations we show the efficiency of both equalizers in presence of first- and higher order PMD applying a transmission at 10 Gbit/s. Furthermo re we show the applicability of spectral filtering for penalty signal extra ction in presence of higher order PMD and give an overview of adaptive blin d channel equalization. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.