Effect of band location on characteristics of distributed Raman amplification

The impact of attenuation spectrum and effective area of link fiber has been experimentally and numerically assessed regarding the required pump power and effective noise figure for the S-band compared to C-band and XL-bands. Compared to the C-band and XL-band, it is shown that 15% more pump power is required in the S-band compared to the C-band while 1 dB more is observed for the effective noise figure compared to the C-band. The XL-band offers better a noise figure (2 dB lower than in the S-band) with similar power performance. Indeed, the increase of effective area and decrease of material Raman coefficient with wavelength reduces the benefit brought by a lower attenuation coefficient. However, attenuation at the pump wavelength is paramount for the determination of the best noise figure. Installed fiber characteristics, particularly concerning possible bending loss in the XL-band, will finally determine the best suited solution.