A detailed comparison of the overall performance of 980 and 1480 nm pumped EDFA cascades in WDM multiple-access lightwave networks

A detailed comparison of the overall performance of 980 and 1480 mn pumped Er-doped fiber amplifier cascades over four different spectral regions of the usable amplifier band for multiple wavelength operation is presented. These comparisons are carried out by presenting a simple optimization method that relates the individual amplifier performance parameters to the overall performance of an amplifier cascade for best overall system performance. Issues considered are pump power, erbium-doped fiber length, accumulated ASE, inversion level, inter-amplifier fiber loss, and input signal levels and their spectral range.