Experimental quantification of soliton robustness to polarization mode dispersion in conventional and dispersion-managed systems

We have experimentally quantified the soliton robustness to polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in both conventional and dispersion-managed (DM) soliton systems. Long-term measurements were performed in a computer-controlled system where the PMD characteristics varied randomly with time. Apart from the PMD itself, the performance of both systems depends on the average dispersion while the performance of the DM system also depends on the dispersion map strength. The results show that the robustness can be even more pronounced for DM systems with relatively small dispersion map strengths (0<S<10), compared with conventional systems (S=0), which is an effect of the increased power requirements. The experiments were also compared with numerical simulations