The present invention provides a method of determining a mean differential group delay associated with a length of optical fiber. The method including measuring a magnitude of a polarization mode dispersion vector as a function of frequency, using a frequency-domain polarization mode dispersion measurement apparatus, where the magnitude of the polarization mode dispersion vector is a scalar differential group delay. Also the method calculates a frequency derivative of the scalar differential group delay from the magnitude of the polarization mode dispersion vector to obtain a first result. The frequency derivative of the scalar differential group delay being a scalar second-order polarization mode dispersion function. The method further multiplies a proportionality coefficient B2 by the first result to calculate the mean differential group delay. Also, the method outputs a value of the mean differential group delay.