Gain and Noise figure performance of erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and Compact EDFAs

In this paper, we compare the Gain and Noise figure characteristics of physical EDFAs and Compact EDFAs in an optical system consisting of cascade of both the amplifiers. We demonstrate the gain, noise figure variations of a forward pumped EDFA and Compact EDFAs as functions of Er3+ fiber length, injected pump power and up-conversion co-efficient. It is observed that the gain becomes constant when the length of both the amplifiers reaches above 20 m. The comparison shows that the higher gain with flatter output is obtained in case of Compact EDFAs than Physical EDFAs in a system consisting of chain of both the amplifiers. It is further investigated that the agreement between the Compact and Physical EDFA models is good up to 10 m with the no up-conversion co-efficient. Also, the noise figure obtained in case of Physical EDFA is higher than Compact EDFAs when same amplifier length is more than 20 m and then becomes constant for both the amplifiers.