Long-term automatic PMD compensation for 160 Gbit/s RZ transmission

Successful demonstration of long-term (10 h) 160 Gbit/s RZ transmission with automatic polarisation-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation is reported. When the double-stage PMD compensator was applied the signal quality (Q-value) was kept sufficiently large at all times, compared with the uncompensated case. The statistical performance of the PMD compensator was also verified numerically.