Other Advances in Optical Communications
Range Improvements
- EDFAs - Erbium-doped fiber amplifierS
- These requires depositing the rare earth element erbium in to the fiber itself by a process called doping.
- Extend the reach of an optical signal to thousands of kilometers without using electronic regenerators and used in most newly installed transoceanic cable systems
- Raman amplification
- The transmission fiber is pumped with very high optical power (by adding light unrelated to the signal).
- Corning offer Raman amplification with EDFAs to increase the range of terrestrial transmissions and transoceanic fiber optic links.