A dynamical polarization mode dispersion emulator

A polarization mode dispersion (PMD) emulator is presented which accurately follows the dynamics of PMD in field optical fiber. A modification on a dynamic mode coupling waveplate model is presented to model the emulator. It is found that the emulator and model can accurately describe the dynamical behavior of the state of polarization and thus PMD in a field fiber. The emulator is shown to be repeatable. Generally, the dynamical PMD emulator is shown to cause more realistic bit-error-rate degradation than a classical PMD emulator.