International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882

Volume 3, Issue 9, December 2014

Comparison Study of Hybrid Optical Amplifier

Prince Jain1, Kadam Vashist2, Neena Gupta3
1

(M.E. student, ECE Deptt., PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India)

2(
PhD, ECE Deptt., PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India)
3
(Head & Prof., ECE Deptt., PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India)

ABSTRACT
DWDM have emerged in todays optical networks due
to usage of Hybrid Optical Amplifier. The performance
of DWDM system is enhanced throgh Hybrid Optical
Amplifier. In this review paper several hybrid optical
amplifiers have been discussed that are suitable for
the low-cost, high performance applications of DWDM
systems. Their advantages can be integrated to improve
the performance of all optical networks. Different
combination of Hybrid optical amplifiers(HOAs) can
be exploited to provide the benefits as well as reduction
of existing drawbacks of individual amplifier.
Keywords DWDM, EDFA, Hybrid Amplifiers, SOA,
RA.

In parallel configuration, the DWDM signals are first

demultiplexed into several wavelength-band groups with
a coupler, then they are amplified by amplifiers that have
gains in the corresponding wavelength band and then
they are multiplexed again with a coupler. The parallel
configuration is very simple and applicable to all
amplifiers. However, it has disadvantages also e.g. an
unusable wavelength region exists between each gain
band originated from the guard band of the coupler.
Also, the noise figure degrades due to the loss of the
coupler located in front of each amplifier. On the
contrary, the amplifiers connected in series have
relatively wide gain band, because they do not require
couplers.

2. HYBRID OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS

1. INTRODUCTION
To increase the transmission capacity of a single
fiber, DWDM is used. DWDM is a technology, which
combines large number of independent information
carrying wavelengths onto the same fiber. In DWDM,
each optical channel is allocated its own wavelength, a
range of wavelengths. A typical optical channel spacing
might be 1 nm wide or less. The key component of
DWDM system is optical amplifier. In DWDM
system, it is desirable to set a very narrow grid of
optical carriers in order to allow more channels in
the same optical bandwidth. This demands an optical
amplifier with high gain and very broad and flat gain
profile to ensure a nearly identical amplification
factor in every channel of the system. DWDM systems
involve high capacity long haul transmission. Hybrid
Amplifiers (HA) are an enabling and promising
technology for future DWDM multi-terabit systems
as it has been shown in recent experimental results.
There is the method of utilizing amplifiers for optimum
utilization of available fiber bandwidth i.e. by way of
using various combinations of optical amplifiers in
different wavelength ranges. The amplifiers can be
connected either in parallel or in series and this
configuration is termed as Hybrid Amplifier[1].

2.1 EDFA and DRA

The gain spectrum of DRA can be vary by
adjusting the pump powers and pump wavelengths.
So this property is used to increase the amplification
bandwidth of EDFA. The noise figure of Raman
amplifiers is much lower than that of EDFA, So to
achieve a higher gain with lower noise figure or a wider
amplification band is to use an EDFA in
combination with a distributed Raman amplifier
(DRA).
Two stage DRA-EDFA configuration with flat gain
characteristics. This HOA has been investigated as a
DWDM system with 25 GHz channel spacing. It is
observed that as we increase the input power, the gain
variation over the bandwidth increases. With an input
signal power of 3 mW, a flat gain of >10 dB is obtained
for the frequency region 187 to 190.975 THz with a gain
variation of less than 4.5 dB[2].
Optimal configuration of hybrid Raman/EDFA
yielding a closed form analysis. In order to compare
different system configurations, impact of fiber
nonlinearities has been introduced[3].

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3, Issue 9, December 2014

The
performance
of
three single
pumps,
Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier recycling residual
Raman pump in a cascaded EDF section located
after and prior to DCF and Raman assisted EDFA
with respect to gain, noise figure and BER[4].
32*10 Gbps and 64*10 Gbps over SMF of 650 km
and 530 km respectively by using RAMAN-EDFA HOA
as inline and pre-amplifier and defined the parameter Qfactor and BER on the standard acceptable value such
that the HOA is acceptable for long haul
transmission[5].

2.2 EDFA and SOA

Hybrid SOA-EDFAs can be used to widen the gain
spectrum of an EDFA. But it generates greater amount
of ASE than in the EDFA-DRA or SOA-DRA. This
affects the total performance of the system in the case of
a nonlinearity-sensitive transmission system, where
due to the limitations on signal amplification caused
by nonlinearity, the received optical power penalty plays
a great role as it affects the receivers sensitivity
needed for achieving a definite bit error rate (BER).
Therefore, normally it is not applied in long haul
DWDM systems[6].
Hybrid three stage L-band fiber amplifier
configured by a SOA and two EDFA over gainbandwidth of 1540 to 1600 nm[7].
16 channel WDM systems at 10 Gb/s for the
various optical amplifiers and hybrid optical
amplifiers and the performance had been compared on
the basis of transmission distance and dispersion. The
amplifiers EDFA and SOA had been investigated
independently and further compared with hybrid
optical amplifiers like RAMAN-EDFA and RAMANSOA. It was observed that hybrid optical amplifier
RAMAN-EDFA provides the highest output power
(12.017 and 12.088 dBm) and least bit error rate
(1040 and 9.08 1018) at 100km for dispersion 2
ps/nm/km and 4 ps/nm/km respectively[8].

2.3 DRA AND SOA

DRA suppress the nonlinear effects produced by
SOA. SOA benefits include compactness and the
ability to facilitate additional functionalities such as
wavelength conversion and all-optical regeneration
and distributed Raman amplifiers (DRA) provide
broad amplification spectrum, less amplified signal
distortions, even negative noise figure values. But
this type of amplifiers requires powerful pumping
sources. So it is used to achieve higher gain with
low noise figure or a wider amplification bandwidth.

However multiple SOAs are generally not preferred

due to large signal distortions produced by it[9].
SOA-Raman hybrid amplifier using 4-channels and
200-km for CWDM systems using 60 nm bandwidth in
which the Raman amplifier increases overall system gain
and reduces SOA gain tilt[10].
Hybrid SOA-Raman amplifiers with broad gain
bandwidth (> 80 nm) and can be designed to operate in
any wavelength region compatible with single-mode
optical fiber[11].
Hybrid semiconductor optical amplifier-Raman
hybrid amplifiers which provided nearly flat gain over
70 nm. A coarse-wavelength-division multiplexing
transmission system consisting of three spans of 80 km
and 1dB power penalty. Performance was observed
over the entire band with no more than a 1dB
power penalty after 240 km[12].
Different HOA(RAMAN-EDFA, RAMANSOA, SOA-EDFA, EDFA-RAMAN-EDFA) using
different channels(16, 32 and 64 channels) at speed of 10
Gbps with different parameters such as quality factor,
BER[13].

2.4 EDFA-EYCDFA
Disadvantage of EDFA is different gain for
different wavelength due to doping concentrarion and
EYCDFA supresses concentration quenching effect
resulting in higher gain with flatness under certain
pump power[14].
Hybrid EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber amplifier) and
EYCDFA (Erbium Ytterbium Co-Doped
Fiber
Amplifier) provides flat gain of 36dB with
Noise
Figure of 4.0 to 4.2dB for length of 14m and pumped at
980 nm wavelength[14].

2.5 EYDWA and SOA

EYDWA provides high and flat gain due to high
doping and SOA provides large output power or gain
with lesser variation. So HOA EYDWA-SOA with
higher gain and less gain variation to address typical
requirements in metropolitan networks[15].
Hybrid amplifiers
Er-Yb co-doped waveguide
amplifier (EYDWA) and a semiconductor optical
amplifier (SOA) for 10010Gbps dense wavelength
division multiplexed system with interval of 0.2nm
provides flat gain of >14 dB with gain variation of
~0.75dB without using any gain flattening
techniques[15].

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3, Issue 9, December 2014

2.6 EDFA and TDFA

Todays need is broad gain spectrum and less noise
figure in doped amplifiers. The focus is to improve
doped amplifiers with broad and flat gain spectrum, so
as to accommodate more number of channels in DWDM
system. Erbium and Thulium are the main rare earth
dopants for doped fiber amplifiers. The EDFA provides
sufficient gain flattening but gain spectrum is narrow,
therefore DWDM channels gets lesser. So, there is a
necessity to improve the amplification bandwidth of
EDFA. TDFA is a highly viable alternative to meet out
the limitations of EDFA[16].
Hybrid
TDFA-EDFA
and
EDFA-TDFA
configurations for 96 DWDM channels spaced at 0.8 nm
in the wavelength range of 1479nm to 1555nm in terms
of Parameters Quality factor(Q), eye diagram, signal
strength and BER[16].
Hybrid TDFA-EDFA in terms of gain characteristics
and shows that the hybrid amplifiers have gain of over
20 dB and low noise figure (NF) below 7 dB was
obtained in 14601540 nm with the bandwidth of more
than 80 nm[17].

region by combining the gain spectrum of TDFA and

FRA[19].
Wide-band hybrid amplifier series configuration of
TDFA and FRA, which using the similar type of pump
laser. The theoretical gain varies from 20 to 24 dB
within a wavelength region from 1460 to 1525 nm[19].

3. CONCLUSION
Hybrid amplifiers have proven effective in
DWDM systems to increase long haul transmission
distances with improvement of bandwidth along with
suppressed impairments and nonlinear effects. The
biggest challenge with hybrid amplifier is to
maintain and offer high bandwidth in case of higher
number of channels. Hybrid Amplifiers will be
modeled
for DWDM systems
using Optical
Communication
software
in
which
various
combinations of optical amplifiers will be combined
in series to make use of their advantages in DWDM
systems. Modeling of different parameters e.g. gain,
amplified spontaneous emission, BER, length of fiber
and variation of output power can be performed for
proposed hybrid amplifier.

TABLE 1
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT HYBRID OPTICAL CONIGURATION

2.7 TDFA and FRA

REFERENCES

Combining FRA with TDFA is very effective

approach, because FRA can provide any gain bandwidth
by selecting the appropriate pump wavelengths.
However, a drawback with FRAs is that double Rayleigh
scattering (DRS) degrades the amplified signals. The
operating wavelength of this amplifier covers the
bandwidth of entire short wavelength band (S-band)

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3, Issue 9, December 2014

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