Applied constant gain amplification in circulating loop experiments

The reconfiguration of channel or wavelength routes in optically transparent mesh networks can lead to deviations in channel power that may impact transmission performance. A new experimental approach, applied constant gain, is used to maintain constant gain in a circulating loop enabling the study of gain error effects on long-haul transmission under reconfigured channel loading. Using this technique we examine a number of channel configurations and system tuning operations for both full-span dispersion-compensated and optimized dispersion-managed systems. For each system design, large power divergence was observed with a maximum of 15 dB at 2240 km, when switching was implemented without additional system tuning. For a bit error rate of 10-3, the maximum number of loop circulations was reduced by up to 33%

Gain variation induced by power transient in thulium-doped fiber amplifier at 2µm and its reduction by optical gain clamping technique

This paper investigates the dynamic behavior of a thulium doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) operating in the 2 µm region for reconfigurable wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems. We show deleterious channel power fluctuations may be generated by input power variation at the amplifier and we propose the use of an optical gain-clamping technique. The investigated system consists of 20 channels with −4 dBm total input power. Our findings revealed that the effects of power transients due to channel reconfigurations are significantly reduced by a lasing feedback signal. Simulation results show that a power excursion of 4.3 dB is produced after dropping 19 channels when the amplifier gain is unclamped and only 0.0062 dB when the amplifier gain is clamped. The dynamics of GC-TDFA are mainly influenced by the value of the pump power factor and thus the laser signal achieves a stronger stabilization condition with increasing pump power factor. Hence, optical gain clamping is a simple and robust technique to control the power transient in the thulium-doped fiber amplifier of WDM systems at 2 µm

Gain control dynamics of thulium-doped fibre amplifier at 2 μm

This work is novel in that it explains the modeling and simulation of a thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) in a reconfigurable wavelength division multiplexing communication system operating at 2 μm. We use the optical gain-clamping technique in order to control gain amplification and reduce deleterious channel power fluctuations resulting from input power variation at the TDFA input. The investigated system consists of 12 channels with -4 dBm total input power. Simulation results show that approximately 1.5dB power excursion is produced after dropping 11 channels in unclamped-gain amplifier, and only 0.005 dB in a clamped-gain amplifier. Additionally, a clamped configuration reduces the power excursion from 4.2 dB to under 0.08 dB, after adding 11 channels to the transmission system. Hence, optical gain clamping is a simple and robust technique for controlling the power dynamic excursions in amplifiers at 2 μm

Investigation of performance issues affecting optical circuit and packet switched WDM networks

Optical switching represents the next step in the evolution of optical networks. This thesis describes work that was carried out to examine performance issues which can occur in two distinct varieties of optical switching networks. Slow optical switching in which lightpaths are requested, provisioned and torn down when no longer required is known as optical circuit switching (OCS). Services enabled by OCS include wavelength routing, dynamic bandwidth allocation and protection switching. With network elements such as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) and optical cross connects (OXCs) now being deployed along with the generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) control plane this represents the current state of the art in commercial networks. These networks often employ erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) to boost the optical signal to noise ratio of the WDM channels and as channel configurations change, wavelength dependent gain variations in the EDFAs can lead to channel power divergence that can result in significant performance degradation. This issue is examined in detail using a reconfigurable wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network testbed and results show the severe impact that channel reconfiguration can have on transmission performance. Following the slow switching work the focus shifts to one of the key enabling technologies for fast optical switching, namely the tunable laser. Tunable lasers which can switch on the nanosecond timescale will be required in the transmitters and wavelength converters of optical packet switching networks. The switching times and frequency drifts, both of commercially available lasers, and of novel devices are investigated and performance issues which can arise due to this frequency drift are examined. An optical packet switching transmitter based on a novel label switching technique and employing one of the fast tunable lasers is designed and employed in a dual channel WDM packet switching system. In depth performance evaluations of this labelling scheme and packet switching system show the detrimental impact that wavelength drift can have on such systems

Design and Experimental Characterization of EDFA Based WDM Ring Networks with Free ASE Light Re-circulation and Link Control for Network Survivability

In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the performance of erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-based WDM ring networks with free amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light recirculation. We show that, with proper network and amplifier design, the lasing light generated by free ASE recirculation within the looped network provides an effective gain clamping technique, ensuring limited signal power excursions under WDM channels add-drop operations. Considering a ring network composed of eight fiber sections and eight EDFAs, maximum signal power overshoots below 2.5 dB have been measured under 23 24 WDM channels drop. Optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) analysis and bit-error rate (BER) measurement at 10 Gb/s confirm acceptable performances and negligible penalties due to polarization effects and relative intensity noise transfer from laser light to WDM signals. We also propose and demonstrate a new link control technique which overcomes the main limiting factors of such networks, respectively, related to OSNR degradation, stability and survivability to fiber and EDFA breakages

Comparative Studies of Thulium and Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers for Dynamic Optical WDM Networks

In this study, a two-level laser system model is presented to simulate the dynamic performance of the thulium-doped fiber amplifier around transmission window. We used the numerical methods to investigate the influences of channels drop in thulium-doped fiber amplifier performance and compare to that in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier at 1.55.μm region. Our findings revealed that the dynamic performance of a thulium-doped amplifier is smaller than for an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The optical gain-clamping technique is proposed to reduce the effects of power transients in both optical amplifiers due to the channels drop in reconfigurable WDM system. We illustrate that the optical gain-clamped technique is more efficient when applied to thulium-doped fiber amplifier than erbium-doped fiber amplifier. As a result, the thulium-doped fiber amplifier shows greater stability with a larger broadband to enable high capacity WDM transmission

Optically Multiplexed Systems: Wavelength Division Multiplexing

Optical multiplexing is the art of combining multiple optical signals into one to make full use of the immense bandwidth potential of an optical channel. It can perform additional roles like providing redundancy, supporting advanced topologies, reducing hardware and cost, etc. The idea is to divide the huge bandwidth of optical fiber into individual channels of lower bandwidth, so that multiple access with lower-speed electronics is achieved. This chapter focuses on one of the most common and important optical multiplexing techniques, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). The chapter begins with a quick historical account of the origin of optical communication and its exponential growth following the invention of erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) leading to the widespread adoption of WDM. Alternate multiplexing schemes are also briefly discussed, including time-division multiplexing (TDM), space-division multiplexing (SDM), etc. A typical WDM link and its components are then discussed with special focus on WDM Mux/demultiplexer (DeMux). Further, certain challenges in this field are addressed along with some potential solutions. The chapter concludes by highlighting some features and limitations of optically multiplexed WDM systems

Fiber amplifiers, directly modulated transmitters and a ring network structure for optical communications

The three technologies that are considered the key elements in building a metropolitan area optical network are studied in this thesis. They are optical amplification, high-speed low cost transmitters and ring network structures. These studies concentrate on cost reduction of these three technologies thus enabling the use of optical networks in small customer base metropolitan areas. The research on optical amplification concentrated first on the solution doping process, at present the most used method for producing erbium doped fiber. It was found that separationing the soot growth and the sintering improved the uniformity of the porous layer. This made the homogeneity of the doping concentration in the fiber core better. The effects of index profile variations that arise from the non-ideal solution doping process were also simulated. In the search for a better doping method a new nanoparticle glass-forming process, the direct nanoparticle deposition, was developed. In this process the doping is done simultaneously with glass formation. Utilizing this new process it was possible to improve the uniformity of the doping resulting in higher usable doping levels and shorter erbium doped fiber lengths in the amplifiers. There were fewer limitations in the amplifier caused by optical non-linearities and polarization mode dispersion since shorter fiber lengths were needed. The double cladding fiber, which avoids the costly coupling of the pump laser into a single mode waveguide, was also studied. This pumping scheme was found to improve the inversion uniformity in the erbium doped fiber core thereby enhancing the power conversion efficiency for the long wavelength band amplifier. In characterizing the erbium doped fiber amplifier the gain and noise figure was measured with a temporal filter setup. It was made of simple, low cost components but yielded accurate measurements since the noise originating from the amplified spontaneous emission was measured at the signal wavelength. In the study of fiber amplifier controlling schemes the input power of the fiber amplifier was successfully used to regulate the pump laser. This feed-forward control scheme provides a simple, low cost control and managment system for the erbium doped fiber amplifier in metropolitan area network applications that require flexible adding and dropping of wavelength channels. The transmitter research focused on the DFB laser due to its simplicity and low cost structure. A solid state Fabry-Perot etalon made from double polished silicon chip was used as a frequency discriminator in the chirp analyser developed for the DFB lasers. This wavelength discriminator did not require repeated calibration or active stabilisation and was controled electrically enabling automatic measurements. The silicon Fabry-Perot etalon was also used for simultaneous spectral filtering and wavelength control of the laser. The usable dispersion limited transmission length was increased when the filter was used in conjunction with the directly modulated distributed feedback laser transmitter. The combination of spatial multiplexing and dense wavelength division multiplexing in ring topology was investigated in the course of the research on the ring network as the feeder part of the metropolitan network. A new way to organize different wavelengths and fibers was developed. This ring network structure was simulated and an experimental ring network built. The results of the studies demonstrated that the same limitations effecting uni-directional ring structures also are the main limitations on the scalability of the spatial and wavelength division multiplexed ring networks based on bi-directional transmission when the node spacing is short. The developed ring network structure demonstrated major cost reductions when compared with the heavy use of wavelength division multiplexing. The node structure was also greatly simplified resulting in less need for different wavelength transmitters in each node. Furthermore the node generated only minor losses for the passing signals thus reducing the need for optical amplification.reviewe