Distributed measurements of chromatic dispersion and of the nonlinear coefficient in DSF fibers with non negligible values of PMD

We have shown that mapping of chromatic dispersion in dispersion shifted fibres (DSF) is strongly affected by their polarization coupling length. Nevertheless, the possibility to obtain a meaningful dispersion map in a fiber with low polarization coupling still exists. However, it requires averaging of the dispersion values at a given location for different input SOP. First results for the extraction of the distributed nonlinear coefficient n/sub 2//A/sub eff/ are promising.