| The gain of an EDFA (erbium doped fibre amplifier) is in general wavelength-dependent, leading to different amplification levels among WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) channels. The use of Optical FFH-CDMA (fast frequency hopped code division multiple access) offers a natural diversity of wavelength, and therefore gain, thus eliminating the requirement of an equalization stage to achieve flat gain on all channels.; In our work, computer simulations are developed to analyse and compare equalization performance of these two transmission approaches (CDM and WDM) in EDFAs, especially in situations where the EDFA operating point is subject to change (i.e., variable input traffic). We find that WDM requires an equalization stage that fails when traffic characteristics shift, whereas optical FFH-CDMA presents the advantage of more robust, hence truly dynamic, gain equalization.; This study includes comparison of WDM and optical OFFH-CDMA through a single or a cascade of EDFAs for various input traffic types, in a circuit- (i.e. wavelength) or packet-switched optical network. The simulated system takes into account the parameter optimization necessary for a best equalization performance in WDM. |
