Study on the performance characteristics of erbium-doped fiber amplifier for G and L-band / Mohamed Arshaad Sobrattee

In this project, the performance characteristics of Erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) in C-band (1520- 1555nm) and L-band (1560- 1610nm) are theoretically investigated. Several configurations were designed in order to determine these characteristics. The components involved in the set-up configurations are assembled and simulated using a software called OptiSystem. The first configuration designed was used to determine the optimum length of EDF in both C and L-band. For the L-band, the optimum length of EDF was found to be 10m and for C-band, the optimum length was observed to be in the range from 4m to 8m. The most suitable pumping scheme for EDFA was determined with the help of three configurations. These configurations are namely forward, backward and bi-directional pumping architecture. From the results obtained from simulation of these configurations, it was found that bi-directional exhibits the highest signal gain as well as appropriate noise figure (NF) value, which falls in the acceptable range for EDFA which is 6 to 8dB [6]. Finally, a single-pass configuration using bi-directional pumping was designed to analyse the performance characteristics of EDFA. The performance characteristics include usable input power (Pjn), signal gain (in dB), NF (in dB) and the pump power at which gain saturation start to occur. The usable Pjn was found to be in the range from -20dBm to - 8dBm. At input signal power of -20dBm, a maximum signal gain of 39.55dB is obtained at 1530nm. Moreover, the noise figure recorded is less than 6.78dB within the wavelength region from 1520 to 1610nm. Lastly, gain saturation starts at 30mW of pump power for C-band using both 980nm and 1480nm.