Simulation and optimization of optical amplifiers in optical communication networks

Abstract

For several years now, optical fiber communication systems are being extensively used all over the world for telecommunication, video and data transmission purposes. Fiber optics has made a revolutionary change in commercial telecommunications over the past few decades. The demand for transmission over the global telecommunication network will continue to grow at an exponential rate and only fiber optics will be able to meet the challenge. Multimedia optical networks are the demands of today to carry out large information like real time video services. Presently, almost all the trunk lines of existing networks are using optical fiber. This is because the usable transmission bandwidth on an optical fiber is so enormous (as much as 50 THz) as a result of which, it is capable of allowing the transmission of many signals over long distances. However, attenuation is the major limitation imposed by the transmission medium for long-distance high-speed optical systems and networks. So with the growing transmission rates and demands in the field of optical communication, the electronic regeneration has become more and more expensive. The powerful optical amplifiers came into existence, which eliminated the costly conversions from optical to electrical signal and vice versa. Due to the need of longer and longer unrepeated transmission distances and ultra fast broadband transmission, the advanced transmission schemes have to be investigated. So, it is imperative to investigate into the feasibility of unrepeated transmission and ultra fast broadband transmission over long distances. In order to achieve these goals i.e. broadband and repeaterless transmission of an optical communication system, it is of utmost importance to optimize the optical amplifier and have placement in optical networks. The semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) have attracted much attention as they are cost effective as compared to erbium doped fiber amplifiers for long haul optical communication system.