Optical Networks Performance Optimization Based on Hybrid Configurations of Optical Fiber Amplifiers and Optical Receivers

Abstract The 16-channels dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems have been optimized by utilizing hybrid configurations of conventional optical fiber amplifiers (EDFA, RAMAN and SOA) and optical photodetectors (PIN, APD(Si) and APD(InGaAs)). The DWDM systems were implemented for 5 Gb/s channel speed using one of these configurations with 100 GHz channel spacing and 25 km amplifying section. The hybrid configurations are the combinations of (PIN + EDFA), (PIN + RAMAN), (PIN + SOA), (APD(Si) + EDFA), (APD(Si) + RAMAN), (APD(Si) + SOA), (APD(InGaAs) + EDFA), (APD(InGaAs) + RAMAN) and (APD(InGaAs) + SOA). Based on BER, Q-factor and eye diagrams, the performance was compared for these configurations under influences of various thermal noise levels of photodetectors over different fiber lengths ranging from 25 km up to 150 km. The results revealed that both APD structures give optimum performance at input power P in  = 5 dB m due to high internal avalanche gain. EDFA outperforms RAMAN and SOA amplifiers. SOA amplifier shows degraded performance because of nonlinearity effects induced. RAMAN amplifier seems to be the best alternative for long reach DWDM systems because it minimizes the effects of fiber nonlinearities. The configuration (APD(Si) + EDFA) is the most efficient and recommended to be used for transmission distance beyond 100 km due to its larger Q-factor.