光放大器（Optical amplifier）.docVIP

光放大器（Optical amplifier） Optical amplifier We know that optical fiber has a certain attenuation, and the optical signal will attenuate along the transmission of optical fiber, and the transmission distance is restricted by attenuation. Therefore, in order to further the signal, we must increase the light signal. The traditional way to increase light signals is to use a regenerator. However, this method has many shortcomings. First of all, the regenerator can only work in the determined signal bit rate and signal format, different bits and signal formats require different regenerators; Second, each channel needs a regenerator, and the network costs a lot. Therefore, people want to have a method that does not use the regenerator to enhance the light signal, namely optical amplification technology. 4.3.1 light amplifier overview The optical amplifier simply enhances the light signal, as shown in figure 4-5. Figure 4-5 light amplifier The light amplifiers work does not require conversion of light signals to electrical signals and then back to optical signals. This feature leads to two advantages for optical amplifiers than regenerators. First, the optical amplifier supports any bit rate and signal format, because the optical amplifier simply amplifies the signal received. This property is often described as the optical amplifier is transparent to any bit rate and signal format; Second, the optical amplifier not only supports a single signal wavelength amplification - like a regenerator, but also supports a wavelength range of optical signal amplification. Moreover, only optical amplifiers can support multiple bitrates, various modulation formats, and time-division multiplexing networks with different wavelengths. In fact, the WDM technology really plays an important role in fibre-optic communication only when the light amplifiers, especially the EDFA, appear. EDFA is now the most popular optical amplifier, and its emergence has turned the theory of wavelength division mu