Patent ID: 6873457

Claim:
An optical communication system comprising: an optical transmission line; a transmitting section transmitting an optical signal through the transmission line, the optical signal having a variable number of channels associated with different wavelengths; a receiving section receiving the optical signal transmitted through the transmission line; and an optical amplifier to which a plurality of pumping light sources are optically and separably connected and which amplifies the optical signal after being transmitted by the transmitting section and before being received by the receiving section, wherein a pumping power provided by each of the pumping light sources enables the optical amplifier to amplify the optical signal having a predetermined number of channels, and the number of the pumping light sources to be connected to the optical amplifier is determined based on the number of channels included in the optical signal and the predetermined number of channels, the number of pumping light sources providing pumping power to the optical amplifier to amplify the optical signal thereby being controlled in accordance with the number of channels included in the optical signal and so that, if required in accordance with the number of channels included in the optical signal, two or more pumping light sources concurrently provide pumping power to the optical amplifier to amplify the optical signal.