Patent ID: 8036536

Claim:
An optical transmitter apparatus for use in an optical communications network, the optical transmitter apparatus comprising: an optical transmitter unit; a transmission fiber; and a polarization dithering unit connected in series between an output of the optical transmitter unit and the transmission fiber, and configured to introduce polarization variation to stabilize the operation of a Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator operating at a receive end of the transmission fiber; the Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator comprising: a Polarization Controller; a delay unit; and a feedback signal line configured to provide a feedback signal detected at an input to the Polarization Controller; and wherein the dithering unit is configured to modulate a state of polarization of an input signal so that the state of polarization modulation varies on a time-scale that is shorter than the time-scale over which the feedback signal of the Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator is extracted.