Feed-forward control of SOA gain for power equalization in optical burst switching networks

We evaluate the performance of a novel technique to equalize power variation between optical bursts using feed-forward control of semiconductor optical amplifier gain. The technique enables large dynamic range power equalization of incoming optical bursts with up to 10 dB power difference. Moreover, the technique can remove SOA-induced waveform distortion. We achieve more than 4 dB sensitivity improvement with equalized burst power.