Performance analysis and experiment of a homodyne receiver insensitive to both polarization and phase fluctuations

A detailed bit-error-rate analysis of a differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) homodyne receiver which comprises polarization and phase diversities is presented. It is shown that both the requirement for the laser linewidth and the receiver sensitivity are approximately equal to those of a conventional DPSK heterodyne receiver. The insensitivity of the receiver to the polarization state of the incoming signal is also investigated both theoretically and experimentally.<>