Calculation of Birefringence Distribution in Optical Fiber Based on Analysis of Angle Between States of Polarization

A method of the calculation of spatial birefringence distribution in an optical fiber link is presented. This method is based on analysis of the polarization properties of the backscattered optical signal. The analytical results are compared with numerical results. This comparison gives excellent agreement. The spatial birefringence distribution is evaluated from the measurement of the round-trip Mueller matrices derived from calculation of the angles between the input and output state of polarization.