Patent ID: 8111992

Claim:
A method of tuning a transamplifier comprising: providing a plurality of analog input signals to a transamplifier, the transamplifier comprised of: one or more optical transmitters, wherein each optical transmitter receives one of the analog input signals and transmits a transmitter analog output optical signal having a respective transmitted power level; an optical multiplexer having a plurality of inputs and at least one output, wherein each of the one or more optical transmitters are operatively connected with a respective one of the plurality of inputs and the output is configured to transmit a combined analog optical signal comprised of each of the transmitter analog output optical signals having respective transmitted power levels and the combined analog optical signal having a combined power level; a cladding-pumped optical amplifier having an input and an output, wherein the input receives the combined analog optical signal, amplifies it and transmits an amplified combined analog optical signal to the output of the cladding-pumped optical amplifier; and an optical demultiplexer having an input and a plurality of outputs, wherein the input is configured to receive at least a portion of the amplified combined analog optical signal, split the amplified combined analog optical signal into a plurality of discrete analog output optical signals of varying power and wavelength selections, and transmit each discrete analog output optical signal to one of the plurality of outputs; determining desired characteristics for each of the plurality of output discrete analog optical signals; analyzing each of the plurality of output discrete analog optical signals; and adjusting the transamplifier to obtain the desired characteristics for each of the plurality of output discrete analog optical signals.