A method includes sweeping an optical frequency of an optical signal by an optical transmitter controlling an electric-field information signal corresponding to a transmitted signal, providing different polarization states for individual frequencies of the optical signal by the optical transmitter controlling a mixture of a first electric-field information signal corresponding to a first transmitted signal and a second electric-field information signal corresponding to a second transmitted signal, obtaining, for individual frequencies of the optical signal, polarization dependent characteristics corresponding to different frequencies, when the optical transmitter sweeps the frequency of the optical signal, by an optical receiver calculating a polarization-dependent characteristic of an optical transmission line between the optical transmitter and the optical receiver, based on items of received-electric-field information corresponding to the different polarization states, and obtaining statistical information of a polarization state of the optical transmission line, based on the polarization dependent characteristics, with the optical receiver.