Measurements of laser rate equation parameters for simulating the performance of directly modulated 2.5 Gb/s Metro area transmission systems and networks

In this work, we present a detailed study on the extraction procedures for rate equation parameters. Parameters related to the chirp characteristics are extracted directly from chirp measurements. Moreover, the procedures have been applied for the characterization of directly modulated lasers (DMLs) with different characteristics. The laser dynamics were accurately simulated as shown by comparing the measured and simulated results for both chirp and power waveforms. The extracted parameters were then used in transmission simulation to identify the best fiber choice for metropolitan area networks utilizing DMLs. This work can be a useful tool whenever the influence of DML characteristics on the overall performance of a system must be accurately evaluated