Transmission of many WDM channels through a cascade of EDFA's in long-distance links and ring networks

Abstract

We analyze the transmission of many wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) channels through a cascade of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) in both long-distance links and ring-based networks. For a megameter long-distance system, optimal operating conditions are found for achieving a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per channel with as small an SNR differential as possible between 20 WDM channels spaced 0.5 nm apart. Critical issues addressed in this paper include: (a) the non-uniformity of the EDFA gain with wavelength: (b) the link loss between amplifiers; (c) the small-signal gain per amplifier; and (d) the input signal power.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>