Patent ID: 7127173

Claim:
A method of adjusting power for a WDM optical transmission system comprising emitter means, an optical transmission line, and receiver means, comprising adjusting for each wavelength channel, the power emitted for said channel by the emitter means as a function of the optical powers received for said channel at the inlet to the first amplifier, wherein for each channel a reference power is continuously determined as a function of the optical powers received for said channel at the inlet to the first amplifier, said reference power being the power that ought to be received for said channel at the inlet to the first amplifier, and the emitter means are controlled so as to servo-control the power at said inlet on said reference power, wherein for each channel i, a parameter f i is determined which is a function of the powers received at the inlet to the first amplifier, and in that the reference power is modified by replacing its preceding value with a reference value that is a function of said preceding value and also of the parameter f i , wherein the parameter f i is such that: f i = ∑ j = l , m ⁢ ⁢ P ij - 1 where P ij represents the power at the jth point of the transmission line for channel i and where m is the number of points of said line.