Variable Gain EDFAs for Dynamic Mesh Networks

Most new network builds and major upgrades in recent years have been focused on building dynamic reconfigurable optical layers to support the explosive growth in IP traffic. These advanced optical layers include Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) devices allowing network operators to dynamically configure the wavelengths to be added and dropped at each network node, thus increasing network flexibility, improving bandwidth utilization, and reducing operational complexity. Many of the more advanced networks builds also require support for optical mesh layers, utilizing higher degree ROADM based on Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) technology to provide optical cross connections.