Patent ID: 8095008

Claim:
A method for controlling optical amplifier gain and per-channel attenuation in an optical node, comprising: handling a multiple-input, multiple-output reconfigurable optical node as one or more single-input, single-output reconfigurable optical nodes suitable for a proportional-integral-differential control process; monitoring per-channel input power and per-channel output power; managing per-channel attenuation for each of a plurality of channels in the node responsive to the monitored per-channel input power and per-channel output power; and managing optical amplifier gain responsive to the managing per-channel attenuation step; wherein the managing per-channel attenuation step comprises: comparing a drop power target to actual channel drop power for each of the plurality of channels that is dropped at the node; comparing an express node gain target to actual express node gain for each of the plurality of channels that is expressed through the node; and updating per-channel attenuation for each of the plurality of channels responsive to the comparing steps.