International Electrotechnical Commission

Fibre optic communication subsystem test procedures – Part 4-4: Cable plants and links – Polarization mode dispersion measurement for installed links - Edition 1.0
 N 61280-4-4

Annotation

This part of IEC 61280 provides uniform methods of measuring polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of single-mode installed links. An installed link is the optical path between transmitter and receiver, or a portion of that optical path. These measurements may be used to assess the suitability of a given link for high bit rate applications or to provide insight on the relationships of various related transmission attributes. The principles of this document are aligned with those of the optical fibre and optical fibre cable test method, IEC 60793-1-48 (see Bibliography), which focuses on aspects related to the measurement of factory lengths. Instead, this document focuses on the measurement methods and requirements for measuring long lengths that might be installed – and that might also include other optical elements, such as amplifiers, DWDM components, multiplexers, etc.

PMD is a statistical parameter. The reproducibility of measurements depends on the particular method, but is limited also by the PMD level of the link. Gisin [3]5) derived a theoretical limit to this reproducibility, by assuming an infinite range of measured wavelengths and ideal measurement conditions.

NOTE 1 Test methods for factory lengths of optical fibres and optical fibre cables are given in IEC 60793-1-48.

NOTE 2 Test methods for optical amplifiers are given in IEC 61290-11-1 and IEC 61290-11-2.

NOTE 3 Test methods for passive optical components are given in IEC 61300-3-32.

NOTE 4 Guidelines for the calculation of PMD for links that include components such as dispersion compensators or optical amplifiers are given in IEC 61282-3.