Polarization mode dispersion(PMD) is considered to be the ultimate limitation in high-speed optical fiber communication systems. Establishing an effective control algorithm for adaptive PMD compensation is a challenging task, because PMD possesses the time-varying and statistical properties. The particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm is introduced into self-adaptive PMD compensation as feedback control algorithm. The experiment results show that PSO-based control algorithm has some unique features of rapid convergence to the global optimum without being trapped in local sub-optima and good robustness to noise in the optical fiber transmission line that has never been achieved in PMD compensation before.
Using two typical types of polarization controller, this paper analyses theoretically and experimentally the fact that it is necessary to adjust at least three instead of two waveplates in order to transform any state of polarization to any other output covering the entire Poincar6 sphere. The experimental results are exactly in accordance with the theory discussed in this paper. It has corrected the conventional and inaccurate point of view that two waveplates of a polarization controller are adequate to complete the transformation of state of polarization.
