Simultaneous gain profile design and noise figure prediction for Raman amplifiers using machine learning.

A machine learning framework predicting pump powers and noise figure profile for a target distributed Raman amplifier gain profile is experimentally demonstrated. We employ a single-layer neural network to learn the mapping from the gain profiles to the pump powers and noise figures. The obtained results show highly accurate gain profile designs and noise figure predictions, with a maximum error on average of ∼0.3dB. This framework provides a comprehensive characterization of the Raman amplifier and thus is a valuable tool for predicting the performance of next-generation optical communication systems, expected to employ Raman amplification.