Patent ID: 7852467

Claim:
A method of determining a mean differential group delay associated with a length of optical fiber comprising the steps of: measuring a magnitude of a polarization mode dispersion vector |τ ω | as a function of frequency, using a frequency-domain polarization mode dispersion measurement apparatus, the magnitude of the polarization mode dispersion vector |τ ω | being a scalar differential group delay; calculating a frequency derivative of the scalar differential group delay ⅆ  τ →  ⅆ ω from the magnitude of the polarization mode dispersion vector to obtain a first result, the frequency derivative of the scalar differential group delay being a scalar second-order polarization mode dispersion function; multiplying a proportionality coefficient B 2 by the first result to calculate the mean differential group delay τ , where B 2 is dimensionless, τ and τ are in units of seconds, ω is in units of radians/second, and |τ ω | and ⅆ  τ →  ⅆ ω are in units of seconds 2 ; and outputting a value of the mean differential group delay τ .