Patent ID: 8195012

Claim:
A polarization mode dispersion (PMD) apparatus comprising: a polarization controller; a polarization beam splitter optically coupled to the polarization controller and operable to split an optical signal into a first portion having a first principal state of polarization of an optical line and a second portion having a second principal state of polarization of the optical line; a first optical detector optically coupled to the polarization beam splitter and operable to convert the first portion into a first electrical signal; a second optical detector optically coupled to the polarization beam splitter and operable to convert the second portion into a second electrical signal; a tunable electronic delay device electrically coupled to the second optical detector and operable to compensate for a differential group delay (DGD) of the optical line; a combiner electrically coupled to the first optical detector and the tunable electronic delay device, where the combiner is operable to produce a fixed output electrical signal; and a light source configured to output a PMD-compensated optical signal as a function of the fixed output electrical signal.