EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL-ANALYSIS OF RELAXATION-OSCILLATIONS AND SPECTRAL HOLE-BURNING EFFECTS IN ALL-OPTICAL GAIN-CLAMPED EDFAS FOR WDM NETWORKS

Experimental and theoretical analysis of the gain dynamics of all-opti cally stabilized multichannel erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and the impact on wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks performan ce requirements is presented, In particular, we focus on precise analy sis of the detailed transient response of the surviving channel and th e relaxation oscillations of the compensating (lasing) signal, The mai n objective of this work is to experimentally and theoretically analyz e and examine some of the critical factors such as, lasing wavelength, gain recovery time, relaxation oscillation frequency of the feedback loop, and the number of channels dropped/added, that affect the transi ent power excursions in the surviving channel. First, we consider the applicability of laser automatic gain control (AGC) to control fast po wer transients in WDM optical networks and reports the first high reso lution measurements of transients in such gain controlled EDFA's. Seco nd, the experimental results are compared with those predicted from a numerical simulation of the dynamic of the gain controlled EDFA.