A novel approach for the enhancement of Fiber optic communication using EDFA

The main constraints in implementing long distance fiber optic communication are optical Fiber loss, attenuation and dispersion. The paper proposes a novel approach to overcome these constraints by using Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). The input parameters on which the information signal of attraction in optic fiber communication system depends on are signal wavelength, signal power, power of the pump signal, wavelength of the pump signal, Er-ion concentration, Er-doping radius and fiber length. The output parameters of the system which determine the overall performance include gain, noise figure, degradation and radiation tolerance. In our work, a joined analysis of the above said parameters of optic fiber communication system is done choosing EDFA as the optical repeater. For the EDFA with lowest Erbium concentration gives the greatest degradation. The optimum values for bandwidth (greater than 35nm) and gain flatness(less than 0.7dB) is obtained at an optical pumping of 980nm. The 980nm pumping scheme has a constraint that shows greater gain degradation. The suitable adjustments in pump power is possible to overcome the gain variation at 980nm & 1480nm pumping techniques, which results in high bandwidth. The Er-doping radius shows an optimum value of 2.0um, gain peak occurs at signal wavelength of 1532nm.

I. Introduction

Communication is an integral part of our lives. Due to the immense advantages offered by fiber optic communication like low weight, high bandwidth, less maintenance, low cost, the technology finds a wide range of applications in telephone industry, cable television network, internet services, closed circuit television, military applications and so on. The main barriers in optical communication system are fiber loss, attenuation, dispersion [1], [2] and the solution to these to an extent is offered by Optical amplifiers. The most common types of optical amplifiers are semiconductor laser amplifier, Raman amplifier, Brillouin amplifiers and rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers [3].