Patent ID: 6903867

Claim:
A method for monitoring and controlling an optical amplifier, comprising the steps of: determining a gain of an optical channel of the plurality of optical channels to be amplified in the amlifier; selecting a sub-set of optical channels from the plurality of optical channels; and dynamically regulating a target gain of the amplifier in response to the changes of the gain of said optical channel of the plurality of optical channels so as to provide that the gain for each optical channel from the selected sub-set of channels is within a predetermined range; wherein the step of dynamically regulating the target gain of the amplifier comprises regulating the target gain of the amplifier so as to provide that the gain for each channel from the selected sub-set of channels is within a gain ripple Δ of the amplifier, the gain ripple Δ being a variation of the amplifier gain profile within a band of wavelengths to be amplified; and wherein the step of dynamically regulating the target gain of the amplifier further comprises: (a) identifying an optical channel over the band of wavelengths that carries a signal and has the lowest gain; and (b) changing the target gain of the amplifier so as to provide that the gain of said channel is substantially equal to the following value G ripple min =G 0 −Δ/2, wherein G 0 is an original target gain of the amplifier.