Resistance of solitons to the effects of polarization dispersion in optical fibers

Using numerical simulation, we show that solitons of any pulse width can avoid splitting or excessive broadening in response to birefringence of randomly varying orientation as long as the fiber's polarization-dispersion parameter (in psec/km((1/2))) is less than ~0.3D((1/2)), where D is the dispersion parameter (in psec nm(-1) Km(-1)). Nevertheless, we also find that polarization dispersion tends to produce a significant amount of dispersive wave radiation from the soliton.