Optical amplifiers for optical networks

Abstract

The erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is a key enabler of WDM transmission systems and wavelength routed optical networks. EDFAs are well suited to compensate the optical loss of network elements and transmission spans. Although the EDFA's are almost ideal in their characteristics, they are not quite perfect. Two effects which are critical in WDM networks and transmission systems are spectral gain non-uniformity and channel cross saturation in EDFAs.