Patent ID: 6928201

Claim:
A method for providing controllable second-order polarization mode dispersion for fiber optic transmission, comprising: providing an optical fiber section of fixed high birefringent optical fiber; providing a polarization controller connected to the optical fiber section; providing a variable differential group delay module connected to polarization controller; controlling the variable differential group delay module to vary the second-order polarization mode dispersion values at an output of the high birefringent optical fiber section; and optimizing the phase angle between the variable differential group delay module and the optical fiber section by: setting the variable differential group delay module at a predetermined differential group delay value; measuring the second-order polarization mode dispersion values at different phase angles of the polarization controller; and identifying the optimized phase angle as the phase angle of the polarization controller that gives the overall maximum second-order polarization mode dispersion values at each differential group delay value of the variable differential group delay module.