The need for dynamic control in high data-rate communication systems

High data rate optical communication systems will require dynamic control to maintain low error rates for operational systems. The transmission impairments that lead to variable system performance are polarization effects, dispersion, noise, and optical nonlinearity. The polarization effects include polarization dependent loss (PDL), polarization mode dispersion (PMD), and polarization dependent gain (PDG). In many cases these impairments combine to lead to overall system performance degradation. Of particular interest are optical communication networks that will be connected via optical switches. Here one anticipates that high capacity networks of various designs may be optically connected.