Time and frequency domain characteristics of polarization-mode dispersion emulators

We investigate both experimentally and theoretically a new technique to rea listically emulate polarization-mode dispersion (PMD), We propose and demon strate a PMD emulator using rotatable connectors between sections of polari zation-maintaining fibers that generates an ensemble of high PMD fiber real izations by randomly rotating the connectors. It is shown that: 1) the DGD of this emulator is Maxwellian-distributed over an ensemble of fiber realiz ations at any fixed optical frequency; and 2) the frequency autocorrelation function of the PMD emulator resembles that in a real fiber when averaged over an ensemble of fiber realizations. A realistic autocorrelation functio n is required for proper emulation of higher order PMD and indicates the fe asibility of using this emulator for wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems.