An apparatus includes a polarization beam splitter (PBS) and an optical detector. The PBS is configured to receive a polarized optical signal transported via an optical communication path of an optical network. The detector is configured to receive from the PBS a first polarization component of the optical signal, and to produce a first electrical measure of the first polarization component. A processor is configured to determine a dynamic metric of the optical communication path based at least on the first electrical measure. Some embodiments also include a second detector configured to receive from the PBS a second polarization component of the optical signal. The second detector produces a second electrical measure of the second polarization component, and the processor is configured to determine the dynamic metric based on both the first and second electrical measures.

Device and methods for real-time polarization-dependent loss monitoring at coherent transceivers. In one embodiment, there is provided a method of monitoring a polarization dependent loss (PDL) of a signal during transmission through an optical communication link, the method comprising: receiving the signal by a coherent receiver, the received signal being subjected to one or more impairments in Amplifier Gain Control (AGC) mode, the one or more impairments including PDL; estimating an AGC gain effect of the AGC mode; compensating for the AGC gain effect in the received signal; determining the PDL from the compensated signal; and reporting the PDL.

A system includes a first device and a second device. The first device generates a source optical signal using a first optical signal and a polarization splitter-rotator. The second device modulates the source optical signal from the first device using a first data signal to produce a first modulated optical signal. The first modulated optical signal has a polarization that is orthogonal to a polarization of the source optical signal. The first device recovers the first data signal from the first modulated optical signal using at least the polarization splitter-rotator.

A method for polarization compensation includes: (a) generating at least one beam of an electromagnetic wave; (b) sending the at least one beam through a physical medium; (c) receiving the at least one beam of an electromagnetic wave after it has traversed the physical medium; (d) measuring the intensity of the electromagnetic wave after it traverses a system of electromagnetic retarders; (e) determining the polarization of the electromagnetic wave after it traverses the system of electromagnetic retarders; (f) calculating the positions of the electromagnetic retarders to match the determined polarization of the electromagnetic wave with the polarization of the generated electromagnetic wave; and (g) compensating the effect of the physical medium on the polarization of the electromagnetic wave by setting the electromagnetic retarders according to the calculated positions.

Provided is an optical communication system comprising a polarization-diversity optical power supply capable of supplying light over a non-polarization-maintaining optical fiber to a polarization-sensitive modulation device. In an example embodiment, the polarization-diversity optical power supply operates to accommodate random polarization fluctuations within the non-polarization-maintaining optical fiber and enables an equal-power split at a passive polarization splitter preceding the polarization-sensitive modulation device.

A full duplex communication network includes a first coherent optics transceiver having (i) a first receiver, and (ii) a first transmitter configured to transmit a first dual polarized signal. The network further includes a second coherent optics transceiver having (i) a second receiver configured to receive the first dual polarized signal, and (ii) a second transmitter configured to transmit a second dual polarized signal. The network further includes an optical transport medium operably coupling the first coherent optics transceiver to the second coherent optics transceiver, and a first compensation module configured to filter (i) crosstalk between orthogonal components of the first dual polarized signal, and (ii) reflections between the first dual polarized signal and the second dual polarized signal.

Methods and systems for eliminating polarization dependence for 45 degree incidence MUX/DEMUX designs may include an optical transceiver, where the optical transceiver comprises an input optical fiber, a beam splitter, and a plurality of thin film filters coupled to a photonics die. The thin film filters are arranged above corresponding grating couplers in the photonics die. The transceiver may receive an input optical signal comprising different wavelength signals via the input optical fiber, split the input optical signal into signals of first and polarizations using the beam splitter by separating the signals of the second polarization laterally from the signals of the first polarization, communicate the signals of the first polarization and the second polarization to the plurality of thin film filters, and reflect signals of each of the plurality of different wavelength signals to corresponding grating couplers in the photonics die using the thin film filters.

A transmission method includes mapping a data signal to a symbol according to a modulation mode to generate a first electric field signal and a second electric field signal, modulating a light beam based on the first electric field signal and the second electric field signal to generate a first polarized light beam and a second polarized light beam that are orthogonal to each other, multiplexing the first polarized light beam and the second polarized light beam, applying transformation processing of changing each polarization angle of the first polarized light beam and the second polarized light beam to the first electric field signal and the second electric field signal and adding polarization information indicating a change amount caused by the transformation processing for each polarization angle of the first polarized light beam and the second polarized light beam to the first electric field signal and the second electric field signal.

An echo cancellation method includes steps of (a) extracting phase-distortion estimates, (b) reconstructing an echo signal, (c) generating a clean signal, and (d) producing a primary signal. Step (a) includes extracting, from a first phase signal, a plurality of phase-distortion estimates, the first phase signal having been estimated from an echo-corrupted signal received at a first coherent transceiver of a coherent optical network. Step (b) includes reconstructing an echo signal from the plurality of phase-distortion estimates and a transmitted signal transmitted by the first coherent transceiver. Step (c) includes generating a clean signal as a difference between the reconstructed echo signal and the first phase signal. Step (d) includes producing a primary signal by mapping each of a plurality of clean-phase estimates of the clean signal to one of a plurality of constellation symbols associated with a modulation scheme of the primary signal.

A polarization scrambler using a retardance element (RE) is disclosed. The polarization scrambler may include an optical fiber input to transmit an optical signal, and a beam expander to receive and expand the optical signal to create an expanded optical signal. The polarization scrambler may include a retardance element (RE) to cause a polarization scrambling effect on the expanded optical signal and to create a scrambled expanded optical signal. The polarization scrambler may include a beam reducer to receive and reduce the scrambled expanded optical signal to create a scrambled optical signal. The polarization scrambler may include an optical fiber output to receive scrambled optical signal. The optical fiber output may transmit the scrambled optical signal to one or more downstream optical components.