Patent ID: 7027210

Claim:
A method for determining gain for an optical signal, comprising: measuring a first power level comprising an output power level of an optical signal at a first optical node; communicating the optical signal to a second optical node, wherein the optical nodes are in a bidirectional network communicating signals in a first direction and a second direction, and wherein the optical signal communicated from the first node to the second node is communicated in the first direction; communicating the first power level to the second optical node in an optical supervisory channel of the optical signal; receiving the optical signal at the second optical node; measuring a second power level of the optical signal at the second optical node; determining a gain for the optical signal based on the first and second power levels; and communicating the determined gain from the second node to the first node to enable the first node to set a gain for the second direction to match the gain in the first direction determined at the second node.