Remotely-pumped optical distribution networks

Summary form only given. We introduce a systematic approach to the design of WDM-aware IP networks with emphasis on access networks, in particular the ONAAMP Consortium´s hierarchical metropolitan-area access network. This comprises of several distribution networks sharing the resources of each feeder network that descends from the backbone. We propose the use of remotely pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) in particular layout geometries to increase the number of users by two or three orders of magnitude without adding substantially to the cost. Sections of erbium-doped fiber of appropriately chosen length and doping concentration are inserted at suitable locations along the length of undoped single-mode fiber. The pump sources can be maintained at the feeder network access nodes, simplifying deployment, network management-and-control and ensuring that no component physically in the distribution network needs an electrical power supply. We have carried out detailed calculations, introducing two different analyses based on established rate-equations models of EDFAs, for several upstream and downstream architectures.