A black box model of EDFA's operating in WDM systems

Abstract

A black box model is derived for an erbium-doped optical amplifier and is successfully applied to 1480 and 980 nm pumped devices operated under conditions which are typical for wavelength division multiplex (WDM) systems. It allows compound optical amplifiers with arbitrary passive optical circuitry (isolators, couplers, taps, and equalizing filters) to be modeled on the basis of "black box" characteristics. The gain model is based on an analytic solution for the effective two-level laser system, i.e., it is equivalent with the results of most numerical EDFA modeling tools. The model for amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) based on an equivalent ASE source in front of the amplifier can be applied over a wide range of operating points.