System performance evaluation in terrestrial systems with high polarization mode dispersion and the effect of chirping

We evaluate the system power penalty for different modulation formats-nonre turn-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ), dispersion-managed solitons, and p rechirped RZ-in the presence of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) for 10-G b/s terrestrial systems. All orders of PMD are considered by simulating the fiber using the coarse-step method, and a statistical approach is used to estimate the occasional fading of the signals. We show that pulses with low er duty-cycles perform better in general, and the system performance is imp roved if appropriate prechirping interacts with the residual chromatic disp ersion of the fiber.