Adaptive EDFA gain optimization and comparative analysis of pre-, inline, and postamplification in DCF WDM optical communication systems

Abstract The research paper presents an 8-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system integrated with an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) with a comparative analysis of pre-, inline, and postamplification configurations. The main objective of the research work is to investigate the EDFA gain at different amplifier configurations and to observe the maximum system performance over a 100 km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission link, which is followed by the 20 km dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF). The 8-channels are spaced at 100 GHz and are transmitted using 0 dBm launch power with NRZ modulation. The gain of the EDFA is also varied from 10 dB to 30 dB for measuring the BER, Q -factor, and received optical power. The obtained results indicate that the placement of amplifiers also affects the transmission performance. The gain is found to be 25 dB for the postamplification configuration, whereas for preamplification, the gain is 30 dB, and for inline amplification, the gain is found to be 20 dB. While comparing the amplification configurations, the inline amplifier configuration provides superior quality with better signal integrity. However, gain optimization is necessary for achieving better system performance by avoiding excessive ASE noise and nonlinear effects during long-distance communication.