Equalization Advantages of OFFH-CDMA over WDM in EDFAs

This study stems from the observation that the gainof an EDFA (erbium doped fiber amplifier) is ingeneral wavelength-dependent leading to differentamplification levels among WDM (wavelength divisionmultiplexing) channels. The use of OFFH-CDMA (opticalfast frequency hopped code division multiple access)offers a natural diversity of wavelength thuseliminating the requirement of an equalization stageto achieve flat gain on all channels. In this workcomputer simulations are developed to analyzeequalization performance of these two transmissionapproaches (CDM and WDM) in EDFAs especially whenthe EDFA operating point is subject to change (i.e.variable input traffic). The simulations are based onextensive modeling of WDM and OFFH-CDMA networkarchitectures and signals self-similar traffic andEDFAs. The required background is presented in threestrong tutorial chapters. This study should be usefulto anyone working in the area of opticalcommunications particularly to students and researchprofessionals. The conclusions may be greatlyrelevant to the development of futurepacket-over-light access and metropolitan networksover the next decades.