A Hybrid Strategy for Balancing EDFA and WSS Operating Points for Enhancing Signal Quality in a DWDM System

A novel strategy for improving signal quality in the DWDM based networks is proposed in this article. Signal quality enhancement in an optical network is a non-trivial task which depends on the operating points and characteristics of the key optical devices like in-line amplifier, pre-amplifier and wavelength selective switch. Commercial-grade devices are used for creating an optical network in CDOT optical testbed and evolution of the strategy for signal quality enhancement. The evolved strategy is validated and compared with the similar approaches described in the literature based on the metrics of optical signal quality. It is observed that the proposed strategy reduces the standard deviation of received channel powers by around $\mathbf{6 5 \%}$ (relative to the baseline strategy) while also improving OSNR. The enhancement in signal quality is validated in multiple spectrum load scenarios. It is also experimentally verified that the proposed strategy is resilient to dynamic changes in the network.