Dependence of polarization-mode dispersion penalties on decision threshold and receiver bandwidth

We measured the dependence of PMD-induced penalty on receiver characteristics in an optically preamplified receiver. The penalty is strongly dependent on the location of the decision point and on the electrical filter bandwidth of the receiver. We also confirmed that, for an optically preamplified receiver, RZ signals are more tolerant of first-order PMD than NRZ signals for typical receiver electrical bandwidths.