Design and performance characteristics of extended C-band amplifiers

Abstract:
Enlarging the wavelength range used for data transmission is the most economic step for further increasing the capacity of optical transmission links. Such an extension can either be achieved by using a single amplifier with larger bandwidth or by using two amplifiers in parallel. For a typical two–stage design, the single device solution with increased bandwidth is compared with the split–band approach using two amplifier devices in parallel in various scenarios and in view of different parameters. In particular, the dependence of noise figure on gain bandwidth and measures for improvement are presented. It is furthermore considered up to which capacity the use of a single EDFA is advantageous.