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Networks
Yan Sun, Atul K. Srivastava, Jianhui Zhou, and James W. Sulhoff
In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in the development of broadband erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), which form the backbone of highcapacity lighwave communication systems. Initially, the use of gain equalization
filters increased the bandwidth of amplifiers by a factor of three (relative to firstgeneration amplifiers deployed in the field). Subsequently, the introduction of a
two-band architecture, which includes amplifier sections for the C-band and the
L-band, resulted in a further doubling of the bandwidth. In addition, this amplifier
provides high output power and low noise figure to support the ever-increasing
capacity demand on lightwave systems. Commercial systems with up to 80 wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) channels having a total capacity of up to
400 Gb/s are currently available, and terabit systems have been demonstrated in the
laboratory. The recently discovered phenomenon of fast power transients in chains
of EDFAs constituting an optical network has been shown to impair the performance
of propagating channels in the event of channel failure or network reconfiguration.
Several schemes to control the gain of EDFAs have been devised to mitigate the
degradation caused by the fast power transient effect. Practical broadband amplifiers incorporating these and other control schemes, such as internal attenuation to
control gain tilt, will enable future terabit and higher capacity networks.
Introduction
In traditional optical communication systems,
optoelectronic regenerators are used between terminals to convert signals from the optical to the electrical
domain and then back to the optical domain. Since its
first report in 1987,1,2 the erbium-doped fiber amplifier
(EDFA) has revolutionized optical communications.
Unlike optoelectronic regenerators, this optical amplifier does not need high-speed electronic circuitry and is
transparent to data rate and format, which dramatically reduces cost. EDFAs also provide high gain, high
power, and low noise figure. More importantly, all the
optical signal channels can be amplified simultaneously
within the EDFA in a single optical fiber, thus enabling
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology.
In the last dozen years, tremendous progress has
187
11/2
188
~1 s
13/2
980 nm
1480 nm
1520~1570 nm
~10 ms
15/2
Figure 1.
Erbium ion energy level diagram and corresponding
spontaneous lifetime.
5
4
3
Gain coefficient (dB/m)
2
1
0
1
2
Al and Ge
co-doped
silicate fiber
3
4
5
1460 1480 1500 1520
Wavelength (nm)
100% inversion
80% inversion
60% inversion
40% inversion
20% inversion
0% inversion
20% inversion
40% inversion
60% inversion
80% inversion
100% inversion
Figure 2.
Gain/loss spectra at different inversion levels for an
erbium-doped fiber with Al and Ge co-doping.
EDF1
S1, Sn
EDF2
~
~
~
ASE
filter
WSC
S1, Sn
WSC
980-nm
pump diode
980-nm
pump diode
Figure 3.
Schematic diagram of a two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier for low noise figure and high output power operation.
Transport system
EDFA
EDFA function
In-line amplifier
Power amplifier
Preamplifier
Wavelength add/drop
Broadcast system
189
End terminal
Input
Repeater
End terminal
OMU
TLM
Output
Repeater
TLM
TLM
TLM
TLM
Output
OMU
Input
TLM
ODU
OA Optical amplifier
ODU Optical demultiplexing unit
OMU Optical multiplexing unit
SC Supervisory (telemetry) channel
TLM Telemetry module
ODU
SC
SC
OA
Figure 4.
Schematic diagram of a practical WDM transmission system.
190
Network Requirements
An ideal EDFA is equipped with the features listed
in the left column of Table II. In practice, however,
different network functions require only some of these
features. Table II shows the main requirements for various network applications. Amplifier features can generally be divided into static parameters and dynamic
parameters. To obtain good static parameters, EDFAs
with two or more stages are generally used. Zyskind
et al.15,16 discuss the basics of two-stage amplifiers and
some of the related design issues. In this paper, we
focus on the recent progress in several important
aspects of EDFA technology. In the next section, we
present wideband optical amplifiers for high-capacity
applications. In subsequent sections, we address gain
dynamics and practical system issues. We conclude
with a discussion of the current status of the EDFA.
High gain
Flat gain
Metro
networks
Switching
and routing
Span loss
variation
Change in
number of channels
High
capacity
Large bandwidth
Transient control
Gain (dB)
Low cost
25
20
15
10
0
1520
1540
1560
Amplifier
feature
4
1580
Wavelength (nm)
Gain
Noise figure
Figure 5.
Two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain and noise
figure spectra.
191
S1, Sn
EDF1
EDF2
GEF
S1, Sn
VA
WSC
WSC
980-nm
pump diode
980-nm
pump diode
Fusion splice
Optical isolator
WSC
20
Gain (dB)
25
15
35 nm
20
10
15
30
10
1530
1540
1550
1560
Wavelength (nm)
Gain
Noise figure
(b) Wideband amplifier gain and noise figure spectra
Figure 6.
Wideband optical amplifier design and performance.
192
Gain (dB/m)
40% inversion
30% inversion
C-band
L-band
Wavelength (nm)
Length = L
Length = n X L
C-band
L-band
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 7.
Principle of L-band amplifiers.
193
Input
DMUX
DCE
Power
MUX
C-band
C-band
PC1
PC2
PL1
PL2
PC4
PC3
PC5
PI
L-band
PL3
PL4
PL5
WDM
EDF
Attenuator
Isolator
GEF
1480 pump
980 pump
Grating
DCF
Circulator
L-band
30
C-band
L-band
40.8 nm
43.5 nm
Gain (dB)
20
Total 3dB bandwidth = 84.3 nm
Noise figure 6.5 dB
Output power 24.5 dBm
10
0
1525
1550
1575
1600
Wavelength (nm)
(b) Split-band amplifier gain spectrum
Figure 8.
Split-band optical amplifier design and performance.
194
time constant of gain recovery in single-stage amplifiers was reported to be between 110 and 340 s.31
The time constant of gain dynamics is a function of the
saturation caused by the pump power and the signal
400
e = 29 s
e = 34 s
300
200
1 Channel, data
1 Channel, model
4 Channels, data
4 Channels, model
7 Channels, data
7 Channels, model
e = 52 s
100
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
Time (s)
Figure 9.
Measured and calculated surviving power transients for the cases of 1, 4, and 7 channels lost out of 8 WDM channels.
(1)
195
5
4 channels dropped
4
3
Amplifier #2
Amplifier #4
Amplifier #6
Amplifier #8
Amplifier #10
Amplifier #12
0
4 channels survive
-1
-20
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Time (s)
Figure 10.
Measured output power as a function of time after 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 EDFAs (at time t = 0, 4 out of 8 WDM channels
are dropped).
196
25
0.3
4 channels dropped
4 channels survive
Time (s)
2 dB power excursion
for surviving channels
0.2
15
10
0.1
20
0.0
0
0
10
12
Number of EDFAs
EDFA Erbium-doped fiber amplifier
Figure 11.
Delay and reciprocal of delay (rate) for surviving channel power excursion to reach 2 dB after the loss of 4 out of 8 WDM
channels.
197
7
6
5
Pout (dB)
4
3
7
channels
dropped
7
channels
added
2
1
0
-1
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
Time (s)
No control
Control on
Figure 12.
Surviving channel power transient in a two-stage EDFA when 7 out of 8 channels are dropped and added.
OXC
OXC
1 - n
LCU
WSC tap
PD
Control circuit
Figure 13.
Schematic representation of link control for surviving channel protection in optical networks.
198
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
7 channels, CW
7 channels, 5-channel mod, no control
7 channels, 5-channel mod, control on
6 channels, CW
6 channels, 5-channel mod, no control
6 channels, 5-channel mod, control on
-10
-11
-12
35
33
CW Continuous wave
mod Modulation
31
29
27
25
Figure 14.
BERs measured for transmission of 6 and 7 channels without modulation and with modulation of channels 1, 2, 3, 5, and
8 on/off at 1 kHz with and without link control.
error rate (BER) performance of one of the signal channels is monitored. Figure 14 summarizes the measured
results. When 5 out of 7 signal channels are
added/dropped at a rate of 1 kHz, the surviving channel suffers a power penalty exceeding 2 dB and a
severe BER floor. An even worse BER floor results
when 5 out of 6 channels are added/dropped, resulting
from cross saturation induced by the change in channel
loading. With fast link control in operation, power
excursions are mitigated, BER penalties are reduced to
a few tenths of a dB, and error floors disappear.
Laser control. Laser automatic gain control has
been extensively studied since it was experimentally
demonstrated.44 A new scheme for link control based
on laser gain control has recently been proposed.45 In
199
200
Amplifier Control
In an amplified system, an optical amplifier may
not always operate at the gain value at which its performance, especially gain flatness, is optimized. Many
factors contribute to this nonoptimal operating condition, including the fact that the span loss can be
adjusted at system installation and maintained in the
6.0
Flatness 1.0 dB
Flatness 1.4 dB
Flatness 1.8 dB
5.0
OSNR penalty (dB)
Gain Flatness
Amplifier gain flatness is another critical parameter for WDM system design. The worst WDM channel
the channel that consistently experiences the lowest
amplifier gainwill have an OSNR value lower than
the nominal value given in Equation (2). This deficit,
which can be viewed as a type of penalty resulting
from amplifier gain nonuniformity, is a complicated
function of the individual amplifier gain shapes and
the correlation of the shapes of the amplifiers in the
chain. To illustrate, we assume the same gain shape
for all amplifiers in the chain and calculate the OSNR
penalty due to gain nonuniformity. While the absolute
penalty may vary in practical cases, the result shown
in Figure 15 illustrates an important pointthat is,
gain flatness is a parameter that can have a significant
impact on the bottom-line OSNR. The penalty is especially severe for a long amplifier chain, as in the case of
long haul applications.
The impact of gain nonuniformity, however, is
not limited to the OSNR penalty; it also causes power
divergence of WDM channels in a long chain. While
the weak channels see an OSNR penalty that limits the
system performance as discussed earlier, the strong
channels continue to grow in power that may reach
the nonlinear threshold, also limiting system performance. Additionally, large power divergence increases
the total crosstalk from other WDM channels at the
optical DMUX output. It is thus imperative to design
and engineer optical amplifiers with the best gain flatness for WDM networking applications. State-of-theart optical amplifiers usually incorporate a gain
equalization filter to flatten the gain spectrum, as discussed in the Wideband Optical Amplifiers section.
To minimize the residual gain nonuniformity requires
careful design, modeling, and engineering of the
amplifier componentsin particular, the gain equalization filters.
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0
1
Figure 15.
OSNR penalty caused by optical amplifier gain
nonuniformity.
201
Conclusions
The successful introduction of commercial WDM
systems, enabled by practical EDFAs, has in turn
fueled the development of high-power, wide-
202
bandwidth, low-noise, gain-flattened optical amplifiers. The availability of such high-performance optical
amplifiers and other advanced optical technologies, as
well as the market demand of more bandwidth at
lower costs, have made optical networking an attractive solution for advanced networks. Optical networking utilizes the WDM wavelengths not only to
transport large capacity but also to route and switch
different channels. Compared to point-to-point systems, optical networking applications are more
demanding of optical amplifier requirements such as
gain flatness, wide bandwidth, and dynamic gain control.
Flatness affects system performance in many
waysflat gain amplifiers are essential for achieving
the system OSNR margin for routed channels and
minimizing power divergence to allow practical implementation of networking on the optical layer. Wide
bandwidth can either enable large channel spacing as
a countermeasure of the filter bandwidth narrowing
effect or allow more optical channels for more flexibile
routing of traffic. Dynamic gain control, as discussed
earlier, is critical to maintaining system performance
under varied channel loading conditions caused by
either a network reconfiguration or a partial failure.
In addition to the traditional optical amplifier
attributesoutput power and noise figurefuture
amplifiers are not only expected to deliver more (wide
signal band) bandwidth and higher-quality (flat gain
spectrum) bandwidth, but managed bandwidth
bandwidth with well-controlled gain shape and amplifier dynamics.
Considerable progress has been made in optical
amplifier technology in recent years. The bandwidth of
amplifiers has increased nearly 7 times and flat gain
amplifiers with 84 nm of bandwidth have been
demonstrated, made possible by addition of the L-band
branch. With the advent of these amplifiers, commercial terabit lightwave systems will be realized. Progress
has also been made in the understanding of amplifier
gain dynamics. Several control schemes have been
successfully demonstrated to mitigate the signal
impairments due to fast power transients in a chain of
amplifiers and will be implemented in lightwave network design. Terrestrial lightwave systems have been
increasing in transmission capacity. To meet the enormous capacity demand, the currently available
400-Gb/s capacity system with 80 channels will soon
be followed by systems having terabit and higher
capacity on a single optical fiber.
Acknowledgements
Much of the progress discussed in this paper was
achieved at Bell Labs and the Optical Networking
Group of Lucent Technologies. The authors wish to
acknowledge strong management support from
R. Alferness, P. Lauriello, S. Lumish, and W. Gartner
of the Optical Networking Group and A. Chraplyvy,
A. Glass, and H. Kogelnik of Bell Labs. The authors
greatly appreciate close collaborations with colleagues
including C. Wolf, R. Espindola, and T. Strasser of Bell
Labs; R. Pedrazzani, formerly of Bell Labs; and
A. Vengsarkar and A. Abramov of the Optical
Networking Group. Special thanks go to J. L. Zyskind,
formerly of Bell Labs, who made significant contributions to erbium-doped fiber amplifier technology at
the Crawford Hill Laboratory.
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