In this paper, we investigate experimentally the impact of the optical amplifiers,
namely Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifers (EDFA) and distributed Raman fiber amplifiers
(DRFA) on packet based networks operating at 2.5 Gb/s (typical bit rate for current
passive optical networks- PON). The effects under study are the temporal transience
and the gain excursion. For that purpose, different variables are considered such as the
length of the packet and the idle time. Two scenarios with standard single mode fiber
(SSMF) lengths equal to 40 km and 80 km are accounted for and tested with EDFA and
DRFA. For amplification based on EDFA, the transience dependence with the length of
the packet is more noticeable when the packet duration approaches the miliseconds
timescale (which corresponds to the Er3+ lifetime in the Silica structure). The same
effect is also expected when the idle time is increased. To assess this effect, the gain
excursion and the decaying time are measured.