Abstract
This paper studies the performance analysis of wavelength-division multiplexed optical communication systems (WDM). First, flat-gain erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are seriously needed to obtain proper and equal amplification of all channels. Such amplifiers can be designed by intrinsically modifying the host material or extrinsically using proper filters. In this research, we benefit from both the intrinsic and extrinsic methods to achieve sharp flat EDFA output gain using cascaded fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). Second, the performance of our technique has been evaluated through calculating the bit error rate (BER) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a WDM system embedded with the reported EDFA flattening system. The parametric simulations of the FWHM of FBGs, SNR, optical power and the transmission distance have shown a noticeable improved performance. Sending data via an optical WDM system will be proven from comprehensive simulations to achieve high quality signal transmission spectrums, increased transmission distances and low power consumption. By extension, the reported design using cascaded FBGs can also be generalized to equalize the gain of any arbitrary profile. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.