Patent ID: 7546043

Claim:
An optical communication apparatus, comprising: an optical tunable filter, whose wavelength transmission characteristic varies depending on a control signal, transmitting and extracting signal light with a specific wavelength from signal light multiplexed using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM); a detection unit detecting signal light extracted by the optical tunable filter; and a control signal generating unit generating the control signal needed to enable the optical tunable filter to extract the signal light with a predetermined wavelength by the detection unit, based on a detected result obtained by scanning a wavelength transmission characteristic of the optical tunable filter for a range of a wavelength band including all of the multiplexed signal light; wherein the control signal generating unit determines existence of a signal light where a peak level of a detected light is greater than a given signal light level and a peak point of the detected light at a determined peak width from the peak level of the detected light is less than a predetermined level.