Specialty Photonics Division Your Optical Fiber Solutions Partner0 pages

white paper

Specialty Photonics Division

Your Optical Fiber Solutions Partner

Using the OFS TruePhase®
IPLM Inline Polarimeter
for PMD Measurement
Anurag Jain, Product Marketing, OFS Specialty Photonics
Vitaly Mikhailov, Member of Technical Staff, OFS Labs
Paul Westbrook, Technical Manager, OFS Labs

Small form factor, all-fiber device
for real-time, high-speed optical
signal monitoring

OFS, Specialty Photonics Division
19 Schoolhouse Road, Somerset, NJ 08873
www.SpecialtyPhotonics.com

Abstract
Today, it has become an imperative for fiber-optic network planners to consider physical layer attributes such
as dispersion. As network infrastructures increase adoption of 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s solutions, impairments due
to dispersion seriously impact the bandwidth capacity of the network as well as the quality of service. Therefore,
characterization and subsequent mitigation of dispersion impairments on a fiber-optic link continue to be
critical issues for network operators, especially for fiber segments that are prone to environmental conditions.
Presently, there are several techniques, from simply lowering the speed of the fiber to using expensive coherent
receivers for electronic compensation, which may only compensate to a certain limit. An alternative solution
is to use a small form factor device for real-time, high-speed monitoring of dispersion impairments, which can
then be used effectively to make compensative corrections. This white paper discusses the TruePhase IPLM
Inline Polarimeter from OFS, which is just such a solution that can be easily integrated to make optical networks
much more reliable.

OFS, Specialty Photonics Division | www.SpecialtyPhotonics.com