Optimum design of a hybrid erbium-doped fiber amplifier/fiber Raman amplifier using particle swarm optimization

We propose and optimize a hybrid erbium-doped fiber amplifier/fiber Raman amplifier (EDFA/FRA). A large number of parameters of a wide-band hybrid amplifier consisting of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and a fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) have been optimized using an effective and fast global optimization method called particle swarm optimization. Two types of hybrid EDFA/FRA with six- and 10-pumped FRAs have been optimized. A large number of variables affect the hybrid EDFA/FRA performance, thus we need a global optimization method to be able to deal with these variables. Particle swarm optimization helps us to find optimum parameters of a hybrid EDFA/FRA and reduce the gain spectrum variations to 2.91 and 2.03 dB for the six and 10 pumped FRAs, respectively. The optimum design supports the amplification of 60 signal channels in the wavelength range of 1529.2-1627.1 nm for a wavelength-division multiplexing system.