Analysis on the correlation between OSNR penalty and DOP in PMD compensation

We study the correlation between optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) penalty and degree of polarization (DOP) for first and second-order polarization mode dispersion. We show however via simulations that the compensation method with DOP as a feedback signal is inefficient when the second-order polarization mode dispersion is significant. We illustrate this phenomenon by comparing non-return to zero and return to zero transmission format. We propose that the depolarization parameter can be applied as an auxiliary feedback signal for further OSNR penalty reduction in the optical transmission link.