| Introduction |
Protocol transparanet optical amplifier is one of the most important technology breakthrough in fiber commmunications. Prior to the invention of Erbium dopped fiber, optical transmission could not go more than a few tens of kilometers before an optical-electrical-optical repeater is required to regenerate the signal.
Now optical amplifiers based on Erbium dopped fiber (EDFAs) are widely used in submarine, inter-city and even metropolitan networks in order to compensate losses and to enable long distance transport. Without EDFAs, we would not have today’s highly efficient Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks. |
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| Do You Know? |
Dowslake team is one of the most experienced team working on optical amplifier technology. Following are a few inventions to our team’s credit:
| First DWDM EDFA in 1997, when DWDM technology was still at its infancy;
| First smart EDFA in 1997, with integrated electronics, software, and optics for automatic gain and power control;
| First dynamic EDFA in 1998, with integrated variable attenuator to compensate gain tilt caused by the dynamic add/drop nature of the metropolitan networks;
| First L band EDFA and first field deployed L band EDFA product in 1999, extending DWDM spectrum from 1550 nm to 1610 nm;
| First miniature smart EDFA in 2001, shrinking EDFA packaging to a credit card size;
| First pocket size C and L band gain flattened smart EDFA in 2003, enabling EDFA technology moving from long-haul to metro access. |
Optical Amplifier Selection Guide
Depending on the application, EDFAs can be design for following transmission links:
| Single wavelength transmission(Ethernet,SDH or Fiber Channel Traffic)
For this type of network, EDFA design is typically the simplest and the design focus is to allow maximum power budget to achieve the highest detection sensitivity.
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| DWDM multi-wavelength transmission
DWDM links have typically 8, 16, 32 or 40 wavelength channels in each fiber. EDFA needs to be not only high power low noise, but also gain flattened such that all wavelength channels can be amplified equally.
| Dynamic network with optical add/drop
If your network has optical channels adding and droping, consider EDFAs with integrated VOA in order to keep surviving channels to stay un-affected. Otherwise major gain discrepency may occur. |
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| Controllable EDFA Parameters |
Dowslake is the specialist in providing smart optical amplifier features. Following are the most common control parameters:
1) Set gain - user settable gain per application. It’s the most common parameter for WDM application
2) Set power - user settable power, especially for single channel application
3) Set automatic shutdown - user can provide a threshold below which the EDFA can turn off the laser for protection purpose.
4) Set various alarm thresholds
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| Network Management Ready Amplifier |
| Now customers may order Dowslake optical amplifiers with full network management. MS1025 series product is our traditional standalone 1U chassis amplifier, one chassis with one EDFA(POP1025), support SNMP and CLI(console or RJ45) management interface. CMS1025V series product is platform for optical transmission system, EDFA card with 10/100Gpbs transponder, OLP and WDM card work as C/DWDM optical transmission system. With CMS1025V platform, EDFA can be managed through GUI, SNMP and REST API. |
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