Experimental investigations of the statistical properties of polarization mode dispersion in single mode fibers

Polarization mode dispersion of installed optical cables and of short concatenations of hi-bi fibers have been measured with polarimetric and interferometric instruments. The results confirm the theoretical models, in particular the predicted relations between the two measurement methods. The importance of a statistical treatment of polarization mode dispersion is underscored by the observed instability of the principal states and the remarkable long-term stability of their statistics.>