Effect of traffic patterns on automatic polarization control with polarization and time-division multiplexed optical packet transmission

We investigate a feedback scheme for automatic polarization control suitable for packet and burst transmission on systems using polarization and time-division-multiplexed traffic. A key feature of the control scheme is to make the packet pattern essentially invisible to the controller enabling the use of standard polarization control modules and control algorithms. The scheme is evaluated experimentally in terms of packet loss ratio (PLR) measurements for different burst lengths and patterns covering the entire range of potential traffic loads. In terms of measured PLR the results show a maximum power penalty of only 0.2 dB compared with continuous light transmission.