Optical Fiber Amplifiers For WDM Optical Networks

Optical Fiber Amplifiers for WDM Optical
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
Copyright 1999. Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
been made in the development of EDFA components

and technology, including erbium-doped fiber, semiconductor pump lasers, passive components, and
splicing and assembly technology. In the research
area, an EDFA with a bandwidth of 84 nm was
recently demonstrated.3 Using these high-performance
amplifiers, long distance transmission at 1 Tb/s was
achieved for the first time.4 In the meantime, an enormous effort has been under way to incorporate EDFAs
into commercial optical communication systems. After
intensive laboratory research and development,
Lucent Technologies (then the communication equipment division of AT&T) conducted the first field trial
of a WDM optical communication system in 19895
and supplied the first commercial WDM system,
Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999
187
11/2
Panel 1. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms
which was deployed in 1995. Since then, the capacity

of WDM systems has been increasing at a very fast
pace. Lucents recently launched WaveStarTM 400G
Optical Line System represents the most advanced of
such systems. Today, optical amplifiers and WDM
technology offer an unprecedented cost-effective
means to meet the ever-increasing demand for transport capacity, networking functionality, and operational flexibility.6
The Fundamentals of EDFAs

Erbium-doped fiber can be fabricated by several
technologies.7 Figure 1 shows the energy levels of the
erbium ion and the associated spontaneous lifetime in
the fiber glass host. Erbium-doped fiber is usually
pumped by semiconductor lasers at 980 nm or 1480 nm.
A three-level model can be used for 980-nm pumps,
while a two-level model usually suffices for 1480-nm
pumps.8,9 Complete inversion can be achieved with
980-nm pumping but not with 1480-nm pumping.9
The quantum efficiency is higher with 1480-nm
pumps. The spontaneous lifetime of the metastable
energy level (4I13/2) is about 10 ms, which is much
slower than the signal bit rates of practical interest. As
a result of the slow dynamics, intersymbol distortion
and interchannel crosstalk are negligiblea key
advantage of EDFAs.
Figure 2 shows the gain and loss coefficient spectra at different inversion levels for erbium-doped fiber
co-doped with aluminum and germanium. Under a
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)
ASEamplified spontaneous emission

BERbit error rate
CATVcable television
DMUXdemultiplexing/demultiplexer
EDFAerbium-doped fiber amplifier
GEFgain equalization filter
ITUInternationalTelecommunication Union
MONETMultiwavelength Optical Networking
MUXmultiplexing/multiplexer
OSNRoptical signal-to-noise ratio
WADwavelength add/drop
WDMwavelength division multiplexing
2
1
0
1
2
Al and Ge
co-doped
silicate fiber
3
4
5
1460 1480 1500 1520
1540 1560 1580 1600
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.
homogeneous broadening approximation, the overall

gain spectrum of any piece of erbium-doped fiber
always matches one of the curves after scaling and
does not depend on the details of pump power, signal
power, and saturation level along the fiber.9 The gain
EDF1
S1, Sn
EDF2
~
~
~
ASE
filter
WSC
S1, Sn
WSC
980-nm
pump diode
980-nm
pump diode
ASE Amplified spontaneous emission

EDF Erbium-doped fiber
WSC Wavelength-selective coupler
Bulkhead FC/APC connector

Fusion splice
Optical isolator
WSC
Pump/signal combiners reflective

for signal, transmissive for pumps
Figure 3.
Schematic diagram of a two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier for low noise figure and high output power operation.
Table I. Role of EDFAs in optical networks.

Network function/feature
Transport system
EDFA
EDFA function
In-line amplifier
Periodically amplifies optical signals attenuated by transmission fiber
Power amplifier
Boosts optical power into transmission fiber
Preamplifier
Boosts signal power into receiver
Optical cross connect
Compensates for loss
Wavelength add/drop
Compensates for loss
Broadcast system
Boosts power for distribution
EDFA Erbium-doped fiber amplifier
spectrum is very important for amplifier design.

A high inversion level provides low noise figure,
while a low inversion level yields high efficiency in the
conversion of photons from pump to signal. To
achieve both low noise figure and high efficiency, two
or more gain stages are generally usedthe input
stage is kept at a high inversion level and the output
stage is kept at a low inversion level.10,11 Figure 3
shows one such example, in which an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) filter is inserted in the middle
stage to prevent gain saturation caused by the ASE
peak around 1530 nm. For optical amplifiers with two
or more gain stages, the overall noise figure is mainly

decided by the high-gain input stage, and the output
power is basically determined by the strongly saturated
output stage. The passive components have minimal
impact on noise figure and output power when they
are in the middle stage.
The Role of EDFAs

Currently, optical communication technology is
moving from point-to-point systems to optical networking. EDFAs can play a role at many places in
WDM optical networks. Table I lists the various EDFA
functions. Thus far, EDFAs have been used mostly in
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.
optical transport line systems. Figure 4 shows a typical

optically amplified system. On the transmitting end,
multiple optical channels are combined in an optical
multiplexer and the combined signal is amplified by a
power amplifier before being launched into the first
span of transmission fiber. At the receiving end,
incoming WDM signals are amplified by a preamplifier
before being demultiplexed into individual channels
fed into the respective receivers. Long haul applications also require in-line repeater amplifiers to extend
the total system reach. As wavelength add/drop
(WAD)12 and optical cross-connect13 capabilities are
being developed to increase the optical network functionality, EDFAs are being used to compensate for the
loss of passive components.
In addition to long haul communication systems
and networks, EDFAs also find important applications
in metro area networks and cable television (CATV)
distribution systems. For metro networks,14 in which
fiber loss is small due to the short distance between
nodes, loss can still be high if the number of WAD sites
is large. Optical amplifiers can be used in this case to
compensate for the loss associated with the WAD or
the demultiplexer (DMUX)/multiplexer (MUX) in
190
addition to the transmission fiber. For CATV broadcast

systems, amplifiers can be used to increase the signal
power for splitting into many branches. Low-cost
optical amplifiers are needed for these applications.
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.
Wideband Optical Amplifiers

The recent exponential growth in data communi-
Table II. Applicability of EDFA features to network requirements.

Long distance
systems
High gain
Flat gain
Metro
networks
Switching
and routing
Span loss
variation
Change in
number of channels
High output power

Low noise figure
High
capacity
Large bandwidth
Power tilt control
Transient control
cations and the Internet places urgent demands on

high-capacity communication networks. To increase
total capacity, research and development teams can
work on one or more of the following parameters:
High speed, which is currently limited by highspeed electronics, fiber dispersion, and nonlinear
effects;
Channel spacing, which is limited by filtering
technology and nonlinear effects; and
Amplifier bandwidth, which has commanded
much attention in recent years.
Generic Flat Gain Band

For WDM applications, uniform gain is desired for
all signal channels. Figure 2 shows that the gain is flat
somewhere between 1540 and 1560 nm for an inversion level of 40 to 60%. Actually, it is this generic flat
gain band that was used in initial WDM systems.
The gain and noise figure spectra from such an
optical amplifier are shown in Figure 5. Since the ASE
power around the 1530-nm region can be high
enough to cause saturation, an ASE filter can be added
in the middle stage to block the ASE in this band,10 as
shown in the example of Figure 3. This type of optical
amplifer has been successfully used in early WDM
optical networks.17
Wideband Gain with Gain Equalization Filters
To fully utilize the gain band between 1530 and
1565 nm, gain equalization filters (GEFs) can be used to
flatten the gain spectrum. Several technologies have been
studied to fabricate GEFs, including thin film filters, longperiod gratings,18 short-period gratings,19 silica waveguide structure,20 fused fibers, and acoustic filters.21
Gain (dB)
Low cost
25
20
15
10
0
1520
1540
1560
Noise figure (dB)
Amplifier
feature
4
1580
Wavelength (nm)
Gain
Noise figure
Figure 5.
Two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain and noise
figure spectra.
Figure 6 shows a wideband optical amplifier. The

schematic design, shown in Figure 6a, includes a GEF
inserted in the middle stage. We measured the corresponding gain and noise figure spectra, shown in
Figure 6b, with 10 saturating tones. (The structure in
the noise figure spectrum is due to small leakage of the
saturating signal.) Depending on the design, a bandwidth of about 35 to 40 nm can be obtained in this
conventional wavelength region (the C-band).22,23
Note that there is a variable attenuator in the middle
stage whose function we will discuss in the Optical
Amplifiers for Practical WDM Networking Systems
section. This kind of amplifier with 35 nm of flat bandwidth was used in the long distance transmission of
32 and 64 channels at 10 Gb/s.22,24
191
S1, Sn
EDF1
EDF2
GEF
S1, Sn
VA
WSC
WSC
980-nm
pump diode
980-nm
pump diode
Bulkhead FC/APC connector

GEF Gain equalization filter
VA Variable attenuator
Fusion splice
Optical isolator
WSC
Pump/signal combiners reflective

for signal, transmissive for pumps
(a) Wideband amplifier schematic
20
Gain (dB)
25
15
35 nm
20
10
15
Noise figure (dBm)
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.
Ultra-Wideband Amplifier with a Split-Band Architecture
a flat gain region between 1565 and 1615 nm (the L-band)
Since the gain drops sharply on both sides of the
can be obtained at a much lower inversion level
C-band at a 40 to 60% inversion, it is impractical to
(20 to 40%).25,26 By combining the C-band and the
further increase the bandwidth with a GEF. However,
L-band, a much wider bandwidth can be realized, with
192
Gain (dB/m)
40% inversion
Total gain (dB)
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.
the principle shown in Figure 7.

Since the initial demonstration of principle,26,27,28
much progress has been made in the understanding
and design of ultra-wideband optical amplifiers with a
split-band structure. Figure 8 shows a recent design
with a bandwidth of 84.3 nm, with Figure 8a showing
the schematic diagram and Figure 8b showing the corresponding gain spectrum.3 In addition to wide bandwidth, this amplifier provides power tilt control, which
is realized by variable attenuation (and which we discuss in the Optical Amplifiers for Practical WDM
Networking Systems section), and dispersion compensation, which is realized by the dispersioncompensation element after the second gain stages.
Dispersion compensation is needed for high-speed
WDM channels and can be achieved with dispersioncompensating fiber. Recently, dispersion compensation
using fiber gratings has also been reported.29 Using
this type of combined C- and L-band optical amplifier,
the first long distance WDM transmission at 1 Tb/s was
demonstrated in early 1998.4,30
Dynamic Control of Amplifiers in WDM Systems

EDFAs are employed in present-day multiwavelength optical networks to compensate for the
loss of fiber spans and network elements. In these
applications, the amplifiers are normally operated in a
saturated mode. In the event of either a network
reconfiguration or a failure, the number of WDM signals
traversing the amplifiers would change and the power
of surviving channels would increase or decrease due
to a cross-saturation effect in the amplifiers. Dropping
channels can give rise to surviving channel errors,
since the power of these channels may surpass the
threshold for nonlinear effects such as Brillouin scattering. Adding channels can cause errors by depressing
the power of surviving channels below the receiver
sensitivity. To overcome such error bursts in surviving
channels in the network, the signal power transients
must be controlled. As we will discuss in this section,
the response speed required for surviving channel protection is governed by the EDFA transient response,
the size of the WDM system, and the power margins
built into the transmission system.
193
Input
DMUX
DCE
GEF and LDR
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
DCE Dispersion-compensating element

DCF Dispersion-compensating fiber grating
DMUX Demultiplexer
L-band
GEF Gain equalization filter

LDR Large dynamic range
MUX Multiplexer
WDM Wavelength division multiplexer
(a) Split-band amplifier schematic
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.
Gain Dynamics of Single EDFAs

Because of the saturation effect, the speed of gain
dynamics in a single EDFA is generally much faster
than the spontaneous lifetime of about 10 ms. The
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
Power (arbitrary linear units)
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.
power. With the development of high-power EDFAs

for multi-channel communication systems, the saturation factor becomes higher and the transient time constant, shorter. In a recent report, characteristic transient
times have been reported to be tens of microseconds in
a two-stage EDFA.32 Figure 9 shows the transient
behavior of surviving channel power for the cases of
one, four, and seven dropped channels in an eightchannel system. In the case of seven dropped channels,
the transient time constant is nearly 52 s. As shown in
the figure, the transient becomes faster as the number
of dropped channels decreases. The time constant
decreases to 29 s when only one out of eight channels
is dropped. The rate equations33 for the photons and
the populations of the upper (4I13/2) and lower (4I15/2)
states can be used to derive the following approximate
formula for the power transient behavior:34
P(t) = P() [P(0)/P()]exp(t/ )
e
(1)
where P(0) and P() are the optical powers at time

t = 0 and t = , respectively. The characteristic time e is
the effective decay time of the upper level averaged
over the fiber length. It is used as a fitting parameter to
obtain the best fit with the experimental data. As
shown in Figure 9, the experimental data are in good
agreement with the model for the transient response.

The model has been used to calculate the fractional
power excursions in decibels of the surviving channels
for the cases of one, four, and seven dropped channels.
The times required to limit the power excursion to 1 dB
are 18 s and 8 s when four and seven channels are
dropped, respectively. As EDFA technology advances
further to support larger numbers of WDM channels
in lightwave networks, the transient times will fall
below 10 s. Dynamic gain control of EDFAs with
faster response times will be necessary to control the
signal power transients.
Fast Power Transients in EDFA Chains

In recent studies, the phenomenon of fast power
transients in an EDFA chain was reported.35,36 The
effect of dropped channels on surviving powers in an
amplifier chain, such as the one shown in Figure 4, is
illustrated in Figure 10. When 4 out of 8 WDM channels are suddenly lost, the output power of each EDFA
in the chain drops by 3 dB, and the power in each surviving channel then increases toward double the original channel power to conserve the saturated amplifier
output power. Although the gain dynamics of an individual EDFA are unchanged, the increase in channel
power at the end of the system becomes faster for
195
5
4 channels dropped
Total signal power (dB)
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).
longer amplifier chains. The fast power transients

result from the effects of the collective behavior in
chains of amplifiers. The output of the first EDFA
attenuated by the fiber span loss acts as the input to
the second EDFA. Since both the output of the first
EDFA and the gain of the second EDFA increase with
time, the output power of the second amplifier
increases at a faster rate. This cascading effect results in
faster and faster transients as the number of amplifiers
increases in the chain.
To prevent performance penalties in a large-scale
WDM optical network, surviving channel power
excursions must be limited to certain values depending
on the system margin. Considering the
Multiwavelength Optical Networking (MONET)
Consortium network as an example, the power swing
should be within 0.5 dB when channels are added and
within 2 dB when channels are dropped.37 In a chain
consisting of 10 amplifiers, the response times required
to limit the power excursions to 0.5 dB and 2 dB
would be 0.85 s and 3.75 s, respectively. The
response times are inversely proportional to the number of EDFAs in the transmission system.
The time response of EDFAs can be divided into
three regions: the initial perturbation region, the inter-
196
mediate oscillation region, and the final steady-state

region. In the initial perturbation region, the gain of
the EDFA increases linearly with time, and the system
gain and output power increase at a rate proportional
to the number of EDFAs. We measured the time
delays for a channel power excursion of 2 dB from
Figure 10 and plotted the inverse of the time delays,
which is the power transient slope in the perturbation
region, in Figure 11. Assuming that the amplifiers
operate under identical conditions, the rate of change
of gain at each EDFA is the same and is proportional to
the total lost signal power. The slope plotted in Figure 11,
therefore, increases linearly with the number of
EDFAs in the chain. These experimental results have
been confirmed by modeling and numerical simulation from a dynamic model.9,38
Figure 10 shows an overshoot spike in the intermediate region after 2 EDFAs. The first overshoot peak is
the maximum power excursion, since the oscillation
peaks that follow are smaller than the first one. From the
results of both experimental measurements and numerical simulation on a system with N EDFAs, the time to
reach the peak is found to be inversely proportional to N,
and the slope to the peak is found to be proportional to
N 1.39 This indicates that the overshoot peaks are
25
0.3
4 channels dropped
4 channels survive
Time (s)
2 dB power excursion
for surviving channels
0.2
15
10
0.1
Reciprocal time (s-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.
bounded by a value determined by the dropped signal

power and the operating condition of the EDFAs.
These properties in the perturbation and oscillation
regions can be used to predict power excursions in
large optical networks.
Channel Protection Schemes

As discussed earlier, channels in optical networks
can suffer error bursts caused by signal power transients resulting from a line failure or a network reconfiguration. Such error bursts in surviving channels
represent a service impairment, which is absent in electronically switched networks and unacceptable to service providers. The speed of power transients resulting
from channel loading and therefore the speed required
to protect against such error bursts are proportional to
the number of amplifiers in the network and can be
extremely fast for large networks. Several schemes to
protect against fast power transients in amplified
networkspump control, link control, and laser control
have been demonstrated in recent years.
Pump control. The gain of an EDFA can be controlled by adjusting the pump current. Early reported
work addressed pump control on time scales of the
spontaneous lifetime in EDFAs.40 One of the studies

demonstrated low-frequency feed-forward compensation with a low-frequency control loop.32 After the
discovery of fast power transients, pump control on
short time scales41 was demonstrated to limit the
power excursion of surviving channels. In the experiment, automatic pump control in a two-stage EDFA
operating on a time scale of microseconds was
demonstrated. Figure 12 shows the changes in the
surviving channel power in the worst case of 7 channels dropped and added in an 8-channel WDM system. In the absence of gain control, the change in
surviving channel signal power exceeds 6 dB. When
the pump control on both stages is active, the power
excursion is less than 0.5 dB for both drop and add
conditions. The control circuit acts to correct the
pump power within 7 to 8 s, which effectively limits
the surviving channel power excursion.
Link control. The pump control scheme described
above requires protection at every amplifier in the network. Another technique uses a control channel in the
transmission band to control the gain of amplifiers.
Earlier work demonstrated gain compensation in an
EDFA at low frequencies (< 1 kHz) using an idle com-
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
LCU Link control unit

OXC Optical cross connect
PD Photodiode
Figure 13.
Schematic representation of link control for surviving channel protection in optical networks.
pensation signal.42 Link control, which provides sur-
in Figure 13, protects surviving channels on a link-by-
viving channel protection against fast transients, has
link basis. A control channel is added before the first
recently been demonstrated.43 The scheme, illustrated
optical amplifier in a link (usually the output amplifier
198
-4
Log (error probability)
-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
Received power (dBm)
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.
of a network element). The control channel is stripped

off at the next network element (usually after its input
amplifier) to prevent improper loading of downstream
links. The power of the control channel is adjusted to
hold constant the total power of the signal channels
and the control channel at the input of the first amplifier. This maintains constant loading of all EDFAs in
the link.
The experimental demonstration of link controlled
surviving channel protection is set up with 6 or 7 signal
channels and 1 control channel. A fast feedback circuit
with a 4-s response time is used to adjust the line control channels power to maintain constant total power.
The signal channels and the control channels are transmitted through 7 amplified spans of fiber, and the bit
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
this work, a compensating signal in the first amplifier

is generated using an all-optical feedback laser loop;
the signal then propagates down the link. Stabilization
is reached within a few tens of microseconds, and output power excursion after 6 EDFAs is reduced by more
than an order of magnitude to a few tenths of a dB.
For laser gain control, the speed is limited by laser
relaxation oscillations,46 which are generally on the
order of tens of microseconds or slower.
Inhomogeneous broadening of EDFAs and the resulting spectral hole burning can cause gain variations at
the signal wavelength, which limit the extent of control from this technique. The same is true for link
control schemes.
Optical Amplifiers for Practical WDM Networking

Systems
As discussed in the introduction to this paper, the
advent of practical EDFAs has revolutionized almost all
aspects of lightwave communication systems. This section focuses on the practical issues that must be
addressed in order to design and engineer the optically
amplified communication systems shown schematically in Figure 4.
Optical Signal-to-Noise Ratio

In an optically amplified system, the channel
power into the receiver is usually well above the
receiver sensitivity. The optical signal is optically
degraded by the accumulated ASE noise from the optical amplifiers in the chain. At the photodetector, ASE
noise is converted to electrical noise primarily through
signal-ASE beating, which leads to BER flooring.
System performance therefore places a stringent
requirement on the optical signal-to-noise ratio
(OSNR) of each of the optical channels. OSNR is thus
the most important design parameter for an optically
amplified system. Other optical parameters in system
design consideration are channel power divergence
and maximum channel power relative to the threshold levels of optical nonlinearitiesfor example, selfphase modulation, cross-phase modulation, and
four-wave mixing.47 While detailed OSNR budgeting
and system design are beyond the scope of this paper,
we will discuss practical amplifiers in the context of
the aforementioned requirements.
200
Noise Figure and Output Power

Although optical amplifiers are conventionally
classified as power amplifiers, in-line amplifiers, and
preamplifiers, state-of-the-art WDM systems require
all three types of amplifiers to have low noise figure,
high output power, and uniform gain spectrum. We
do not distinguish these three types of amplifiers in the
discussion presented in this section. The nominal
OSNR for a 1.55-m WDM system with N optical
transmission spans can be given by the following
approximation:16
OSNRnom = 58 + Pout 10 log10 (Nch)
(2)
Lsp NF 10 log10 (N + 1)
where OSNR is normalized to 0.1-nm bandwidth, Pout
is the optical amplifier output power in dBm, Nch is the
number of WDM channels, Lsp is the fiber span loss
in dB, and NF is the amplifier noise figure in dB. For
simplicity, we assume that both optical gain and noise
figure are uniform for all channels.
Equation (2) shows how various system parameters contribute to the OSNRfor example, the OSNR
can be increased by 1 dB by increasing the amplifier
output power by 1 dB, decreasing the noise figure by
1 dB, or reducing the span loss by 1 dB. As such, this
equation indicates that we can make tradeoffs
between the number of channels and the number of
spans in designing a system. Note that the tradeoffs
may not be as straightforward in a practical system
because of the mutual dependence of some of the
parameters. Other system requirements impose additional constraintsfor example, optical nonlinearities
place an upper limit on channel power, which
depends on the number of spans, the fiber type, and
the data rate.
This simple formula highlights the importance of
two key amplifier parametersnoise figure and output
power. While it provides valuable guidelines for amplifier and system design, it is always necessary to simulate the OSNR evolution in a chain of amplifiers when
designing a practical WDM system. The amplifier simulation is usually based on an accurate mathematical
model of amplifier performance. Amplifier modeling is
also a critical part of the end-to-end system transmission performance simulation that incorporates various
linear and nonlinear transmission penalties.
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
Number of transmission spans

OSNR Optical signal-to-noise ratio
Figure 15.
OSNR penalty caused by optical amplifier gain
nonuniformity.
systems lifetime only to a finite range with respect to

the value required by the amplifiers for optimal performance. As a result, amplifier gain will be tilted, and
such tilt can have significant impact on system performance in ways similar to gain nonuniformity.
If not corrected, gain tilt can result in an OSNR
penalty and increased power divergence. Control of
optical amplifier tilt is often necessary to extend the
operational range of the amplifiers and compensate for
loss tilt in the system due to, for example, fiber loss
variation in the signal band. Control of amplifier gain
tilt can be achieved by varying an internal optical
attenuator, 22,48 as shown in Figures 6 and 8.
Implementation of such a tilt control function requires
a feedback signal that is derived from, for example,
measured amplifier gain or channel power spectrum,
and an algorithm that coordinates the measurement
and adjustment functions. By changing the loss of the
attenuator, the average inversion level9 of the erbiumdoped fiber can be adjusted, which affects the gain tilt
in the EDFA gain spectrum.
Another important amplifier control function is
amplifier power adjustment. In a WDM system, there is
a need to adjust the total amplifier output as a function
of the number of equipped channels. The total output
power must be adjusted so that while the per-channel
power is high enough to ensure sufficient OSNR at the
end of the chain, it is low enough not to exceed the
201
nonlinear threshold. In addition, per-channel power

must be maintained within the receiver dynamic range
as the system channel loading is changed. Such power
adjustment has traditionally been achieved through a
combination of channel monitoring and softwarebased pump power adjustment.
The recent advances in WDM optical networking
have called for a power control fast enough to minimize channel power excursion when a large number
of channels are changed due to, for example, catastrophic partial system failure. Various techniques, as
detailed in the Dynamic Control of Amplifiers in
WDM Systems section, have been demonstrated to
stabilize amplifier gain, thereby achieving the goal of
maintaining per-channel power. In addition to amplifier dynamics control, practical implementation in a
system also requires a receiver design that can accommodate power change on a very short time scale.
Performance Monitoring and Fault Location

To maintain an optically amplified WDM system, it
is essential to be able to monitor system parameters
and locate and isolate faults quickly. To achieve this
goal, the system must be continually monitored, and
the gathered information must be transmitted in a
timely manner to the endpoints. A telemetry channel
in a traditional regenerated system uses the overhead
bits on one signal channel to transmit the maintenance
and fault location data to the end terminal and provide
communication to remote repeater sites. In an optically
amplified system, there is no access to these bits;
instead, other methods have been developed to transport telemetry information. The use of a separate optical channel just for telemetry has been widely adopted
in practical optically amplified systems. As shown in
Figure 4, telemetry is added and dropped at each
repeater amplifier site to serve the function of collecting, processing, and transporting maintenance information. It is usually operated at 1510 nm or at one of the
other ITU-recommended wavelengths with a capacity
of 1.5 Mb/sa slow data rate for lightwave technology.
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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(Manuscript approved March 1999)
YAN SUN, a technical manager in the Advanced WDM
Technologies Department of Lucents Optical
Networking Group in Holmdel, New Jersey,
is working on next-generation optical amplifiers and WDM optical communication systems. He holds a B.S. degree in physics from
Shandong Normal University in Jinan, China, as well as
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
the University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China in Chengdu and Stanford University in California,
respectively. In 1998, Dr. Sun received the Bell Labs
Presidents Gold Award for his work on the Terabit
Transmission Project and the Inventor of the Year
Award from the Journal of the Telephone.
ATUL K. SRIVASTAVA, a member of technical staff in the
Lightwave Systems Research Department at
Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, is working
on terabit-capacity communications systems.
He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research in
Bombay, India. In 1998, Dr. Srivastava received the
Bell Labs Presidents Gold Award for his work on the
Terabit Transmission Project and the Inventor of the
Year Award from the Journal of the Telephone.
205
JIANHUI ZHOU, a technical manager in the Lightwave

Technology Development Department at
Lucent Technologies in Holmdel, New
Jersey, holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in
applied physics from Beijing University of
Posts and Telecommunications in China as
well as a Ph.D. degree, also in applied physics, from
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Dr. Zhou, a chief architect of the WaveStarTM DWDM
Optical Line Systems, including the 80-channel 400G
system, received the 1998 Bell Labs Presidents Gold
Award for his work on the Terabit Transmission
Project. He currently leads the Lightwave Technology
Development Group. With staff in both the United
States and Europe, this group is responsible for the
development of optical amplifiers and other key optical components and subsystems for Lucents optical
networking products.
JAMES W. SULHOFF, a member of technical staff in the
Advanced WDM Technologies Department
of Lucents Optical Networking Group in
Holmdel, New Jersey, is working on the
design and development of next-generation
optical amplifiers and WDM communication
systems. He holds a B.S.E.S. degree in engineering
physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and
an M.S. degree in materials science and engineering
from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken,
New Jersey. Mr. Sulhoff was a 1998 recipient of the
Bell Labs Presidents Gold Award for his work on the
Terabit Transmission Project.
206

Optical Fiber Amplifiers For WDM Optical Networks

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Optical Fiber Amplifiers For WDM Optical Networks

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Optical Fiber Amplifiers for WDM Optical

Copyright 1999. Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.

been made in the development of EDFA components

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

Panel 1. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms

which was deployed in 1995. Since then, the capacity

The Fundamentals of EDFAs

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

ASEamplified spontaneous emission

1540 1560 1580 1600

homogeneous broadening approximation, the overall

ASE Amplified spontaneous emission

Bulkhead FC/APC connector

Pump/signal combiners reflective

Table I. Role of EDFAs in optical networks.

Periodically amplifies optical signals attenuated by transmission fiber

Boosts optical power into transmission fiber

Boosts signal power into receiver

Optical cross connect

Compensates for loss

Compensates for loss

Boosts power for distribution

EDFA Erbium-doped fiber amplifier

spectrum is very important for amplifier design.

or more gain stages, the overall noise figure is mainly

The Role of EDFAs

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

optical transport line systems. Figure 4 shows a typical

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

addition to the transmission fiber. For CATV broadcast

Wideband Optical Amplifiers

Table II. Applicability of EDFA features to network requirements.

High output power

Power tilt control

cations and the Internet places urgent demands on

Generic Flat Gain Band

Noise figure (dB)

Figure 6 shows a wideband optical amplifier. The

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

Bulkhead FC/APC connector

EDF Erbium-doped fiber

Pump/signal combiners reflective

(a) Wideband amplifier schematic

Noise figure (dBm)

Ultra-Wideband Amplifier with a Split-Band Architecture

a flat gain region between 1565 and 1615 nm (the L-band)

Since the gain drops sharply on both sides of the

can be obtained at a much lower inversion level

C-band at a 40 to 60% inversion, it is impractical to

(20 to 40%).25,26 By combining the C-band and the

further increase the bandwidth with a GEF. However,

L-band, a much wider bandwidth can be realized, with

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

Total gain (dB)

the principle shown in Figure 7.

Dynamic Control of Amplifiers in WDM Systems

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999

GEF and LDR

DCE Dispersion-compensating element

GEF Gain equalization filter

(a) Split-band amplifier schematic

Gain Dynamics of Single EDFAs

Bell Labs Technical Journal JanuaryMarch 1999