A comparison between black-, grey- and white-box modeling for the bidirectional Raman amplifier optimization
This work addresses the design of optical amplifiers to increase throughput, but it is incremental as it compares existing modeling approaches without introducing a new method.
The paper tackled the problem of optimizing bidirectional distributed Raman amplifiers for optical communication systems by comparing white-, grey-, and black-box models, finding that all methods achieved similar signal power flatness of 1 to 3.6 dB over an 80-km span in the C-band.
Designing and optimizing optical amplifiers to maximize system performance is becoming increasingly important as optical communication systems strive to increase throughput. Offline optimization of optical amplifiers relies on models ranging from white-box models deeply rooted in physics to black-box data-driven and physics-agnostic models. Here, we compare the capabilities of white-, grey- and black-box models on the challenging test case of optimizing a bidirectional distributed Raman amplifier to achieve a target frequency-distance signal power profile. We show that any of the studied methods can achieve similar frequency and distance flatness of between 1 and 3.6 dB (depending on the definition of flatness) over the C-band in an 80-km span. Then, we discuss the models' applicability, advantages, and drawbacks based on the target application scenario, in particular in terms of flexibility, optimization speed, and access to training data.