Abstract

The introduction of Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) has revolutionized the field of lightwave systems. EDFAs are capable of compensating fiber loss over an optical bandwidth of tens of nanometers. Severa1 optical channels can be amplified simultaneously without appreciable crosstalk due to the EDFA’s slow gain dynamics. The use of EDFAs in place of opto-electronic regenerators allows to design transparent, high-capacity, wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) systems over thousand of kilometers, as shown by laboratory experiments and field trials.

© 1996 Optical Society of America