This part of IEC 61290-1 applies to all commercially available optical amplifiers (OA) and
optically amplified subsystems. It applies to OA using optically pumped fibres (OFA based on
either rare-earth doped fibres or on the Raman effect), semiconductors (SOA), and
waveguides (POWA).
NOTE The applicability of the test methods described in the present standard to distributed Raman amplifiers is
for further study.
The object of this part of IEC 61290-1 is to establish uniform requirements for accurate and
reliable measurements, by means of the optical power meter test method, of the following OA
parameters, as defined in IEC 61291-1:
a) nominal output signal power;
b) gain;
c) polarization-dependent gain;
d) maximum output signal power;
e) maximum total output power.
All numerical values followed by (‡) are suggested values for which the measurement is
assured. Other values may be acceptable but should be verified.
This part of IEC 61290-1 applies to single-channel amplifiers. For multichannel amplifiers, the
IEC 61290-10 series applies.