Transmission of multi-polarization-multiplexed signals: another freedom to explore?

We propose a configuration of signal multiplexing with four polarization states, and investigate its transmission performance over single-mode-fiber links. Assisted by coherent detection and digital signal processing (DSP), the demodulation of four-polarization multiplexed (4PM) on-off-keying (OOK) and phase-shift-keying (PSK) signals are achieved. We then discuss the impact of the crosstalk from polarization mode dispersion (PMD) on 4PM systems. The transmission distance is extended from ~50-km to ~80 km by employing feedback-decision-equalizers. We also compare the back-to-back characteristics of the 40-Gbit/s 4PM-OOK system and 40-Gbit/s PDM-QPSK system with the same spectral efficiency. The results show that the performance of 4PM systems is comparable to that of PDM-QPSK systems, which indicates that the proposed scheme is a potentially promising candidate for future optical networks.