Feed-Forward Control of Transient Gain Dynamics of an EDFA for Optical Burst Networks

In this letter, we demonstrate a technique for suppression of transients in output bursts of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) in an optical burst network. To suppress the transients, the EDFA is forward-fed by non-fluctuating input utilizing a power-modulated burst control packet channel. Using the technique, we obtained a maximum 1.7 dB reduction in gain transient in the EDFA output, and we transmitted 9.953 Gbps data bursts and 2.488 Gbps burst control packets stably.