constant, c is the velocity of light, is the optical bandwidth and

is the signal wavelength. The signal source was an external cavity

laser tuned at 1535nm, followed by an EDFA and an optical tunable
filter. To find the actual ASE power produced by the DEDFA, the
(amplified) source ASE power was subtracted from the measured
output ASE power.

Gain and noise figure characterisation of a

68km long distributed erbium doped fibre
amplifier
A. Altuncu, A.S. Siddiqui, A.D. Ellis, M.A. Newhouse
and A.J. Antos

Indexing terms: Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, Fibre amplifiers

The authors report the detailed gain and noise figure
characterisation of a 68km long distributed erbium doped fibre
amplifier (DEDFA) using a fibre design optimised for this
application. The results, representing significant improvements over
DEDFA performances reported hitherto, confirm the success of our
optimised fibre design.

Introduction: We recently reported [1] the transmission, for the first

time, of a 40Gbit/s data stream using 7.8ps soliton-like pulses over a
68km distributed erbium doped fibre amplifier (DEDFA) with a
peak-to-peak signal power excursion of <2dB and a bit error rate
(BER) performance exhibiting negligible power penalty over the
link. This experiment, using a fibre optimised for this type of application, shows great promise for future high capacity long haul
soliton transmission systems. To optimise the design of soliton transmission systems using such fibres, the next requirement is for a
detailed characterisation of these DEDFAs. In this Letter we present
the gain and noise figure (NF) characterisation of the above 68km
link. The measurements bring out the desirable features of this
DEDF, which are the result of the optimised fibre design.

Results: Fig. 1 shows the gain and noise figure measurements of the
DEDFA against input signal power for total pump power values of
110 and 117mW. This shows a small signal gain of 7.9dB for
30dBm input signal power and 117mw pump power. At this signal
level, the measured noise figure is 9.55dB. The accuracy of the noise
figure measurement was tested by an analytical calculation of the
NF. As the DEDFA gain is only weakly dependent on the pump
power beyond ~120mW (Fig. 2), we assumed that the applied pump
power of 117mW is high enough for the minimum spontaneous
emission factor nSP to be realised in our measurement. By using the
measured values of the absorption and emission cross-sections and
the average fibre background loss, a minimum nSP value of 1.41 and a
minimum noise figure of 9.39dB were calculated using standard theoretical NF definitions [2, 3]. This indicates an accuracy of ~ 0.2 dB
in our measured NF values. At an input signal power of 4dBm, the
DEDFA was almost transparent (G = 0.13dB) and had a noise
figure of 12.4dB. The gain compression ratio for saturating signal
powers higher than 10dBm is found to be a 0.75dB decrease in
gain per 1dB increase in signal input power.

Fig. 2 Gain and noise figure characteristics of the DEDFA against total
pump power for different input signal powers
Signal wavelength: 1535nm
gain, dB. 5dBm
gain, dB. 12dBm
gain, dB. 20dBm
noise fig., dB. 5dBm
e noise fig., dB. 12dBm
n noise fig., dB. 20dBm

Fig. 1 Gain and noise figure characteristics of 68km DEDFA against input
signal power for total pump power values of 100 and 117mW
Signal wavelength: 1535nm
gain, dB. 117mW
e gain, dB. 100mW
noise fig., dB. 117mW
noise fig., dB. 100mW

Experimental details: The link consisted of five sections of very

lightly Er-doped dispersion-shifted fibre, with nearly equal
unpumped attenuation coefficients with an average value of 0.67dB/
km at 1530nm, 0.72dB/km at 1540nm and 0.27dB/km at 1600nm.
The cutoff wavelengths and mode field diameters of the fibres at
1550nm varied between 1307.4 and 1480.7nm and between 7.35 and
7.70 m, respectively. The absorption cross-section of the fibres was
measured as 1 1025 m2 at 1480nm and 1.2 1024 m2 at signal wavelength 1535nm. The emission cross-section was 3.4 1026 m2 at
1480nm and 1.4 1024 m2 at 1535nm. Dispersion characteristics
were as quoted in [1]. In each experiment, the link was bidirectionally pumped with 1480nm wavelength light with equal pump powers
from each end. The total insertion loss of the two WDM couplers
and splices was ~2.7dB at 1535nm. The noise figure was determined
by measuring the forward ASE power spectral density within a 1nm
optical bandwidth around the signal wavelength on an optical spectrum analyser and using the noise figure definition [2]:

Fig. 2 shows the gain and noise figure variation against total
pump power for different signal input powers. For input signal powers beyond 5dBm, the gain increase with pump power is ~ 0.068dB/
mW and the decrease in noise figure is ~0.022dB/mW.

Fig. 3 Transparency (net G = 0dB) pump power and noise figure of the
DEDFA against input signal power

where G() is the amplifier gain, PASE(, forward) is the actual measured forward ASE power at the signal wavelength, h is the Planck

ELECTRONICS LETTERS

12th September 1996

Signal wavelength: 1535nm

PPUMP.tot, mW
e noise fig., dB

Vol. 32

No. 19

Fig. 3 shows the transparency pump power and noise figure variation of the DEDFA against input signal power. The pump power
increases sharply for signal powers beyond ~7dBm , the rate of
increase being 6mW/dB of signal power. However, the corresponding increase in the NF is a modest 0.66dB per decibel increase in signal power.
Discussion: The fibre used in this work was optimised in two main
respects. First, it has a very low erbium concentration. This has a
direct effect on the three main operating parameters of a DEDFA,
namely signal power excursion, transparency pump power requirement and noise figure. The optimisation of a soliton transmission
system using a particular fibre consists basically of determining the
best tradeoff between these three parameters. Results reported in
Figs. 1 3 provide the basis of determining this tradeoff as well as
bringing out the desirable features of this fibre. Thus, the results
show that the low erbium concentration allows the DEDFA to be
operated at close to maximum population inversion while maintaining a low net gain. This in turn has resulted in the above lowest noise
figure and lowest signal excursion yet reported for a single span
DEDFA of this length.
When EDFAS are cascaded to form long haul soliton transmission systems, the use of in-line sliding frequency filters is now a well
established technique for reducing the system noise figure [4]. However, the filters introduce an insertion loss. In our system, this insertion loss can be easily compensated for by operating the DEDFAs
not exactly at transparency, but at a net gain of 12dB above it. The
resultant, modest, increase in the noise figure (Fig. 3) will be more
than compensated for by the significant reduction in the NF due to
the filters, and the slightly increased signal power excursion can be
tolerated here because the starting value of the power excursion is so
low (< 2dB). The highest tolerable value for the signal power excursion therefore has to be determined, given the other transmission
system requirements, and then the optimum combination of
DEDFA parameters for this signal power excursion value can be
determined.
The second objective of optimising the fibre design was to minimise Rayleigh back scattering in the fibre. The success of the fibre
design in this respect is confirmed by the fact that, despite the
absence of any inline isolators in our system, we observed no lasing

ELECTRONICS LETTERS

12th September 1996

action or system instability throughout the range of signal and

pump powers used. We believe the maximum signal and pump
power values reported here to be the highest reported so far for lasing- and oscillation-free operation of DEDFAs.
Conclusions: We have reported detailed gain and noise figure characteristics of a 68km long DEDFA over which we recently reported
40Gbit/s soliton transmission. The results include the lowest noise
figure and the lowest signal excursion yet reported for a single span
DEDFA of this length, as well as the highest signal and pump power
values reported so far for lasing- and oscillation-free operation of
DEDFAs without using isolators. These results confirm the success
of the optimisation of the design of our distributed erbium fibre and
show that DEDFAs have a great potential for future high bit rate
and long haul soliton transmission systems.
IEE 1996
Electronics Letters Online No: 19961180

1 July 1996

A. Altuncu and A.S. Siddiqui (Department of Electronic Systems

Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, United
Kingdom)
A.D. Ellis (BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, IP5 7RE,
United Kingdom)
M.A. Newhouse and A.J. Antos (Corning, Inc., Technology Group,
Corning, New York, 14381, USA)
A. Altuncu: On leave from Department of Electronics, Dumlupinar
University, Kutahya, Turkey

References
1

ALTUNCU, A., NOEL, L., PENDER, W.A., SIDDIQUI, A.S., WIDDOWSON, T.,
ELLIS, A.D., NEWHOUSE, M.A., ANTOS, A.J., KAR, G., and CHU, P.W.: 40

Gbit/s error free transmission over a 68km distributed erbium doped

fiber amplifier, Electron. Lett., 1996, 32, (3), pp. 233234
2 DESURVIRE, E.: Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers- principals and
applications (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1994)
3 WALKER, G.R., SPIRIT, D.M., WILLIAMS, D.L., and DAVEY, S.T.: Noise
performance of distributed fiber amplifiers, Electron. Lett., 1991, 27,
(15), pp. 13901391
4 MOLLENAUR, L.V., MAMYSHEV, P.V., and NEUBELT, M.J.: Demonstration
of soliton WDM transmission at upto 8 10 Gbit/s. Opt. Fibre
Commun. OFC 96, 1996, San Jose, Paper PD 22

Vol. 32

No. 19