Patent ID: 6961524

Claim:
In an optical network comprising a plurality of sites, a method of carrying out performance equalization of a plurality of channels, wherein each channel travels through the network from one of the sites, called an “add” site for that channel, to another one of the sites, called a “drop” site for that channel, comprising: a) determining a wavelength-specific figure of merit for each channel-carrying-wavelength at each one of the plurality of sites; b) for each respective site in the plurality of sites, determining whether the respective site has met an equalization condition on a basis of a certain threshold and the wavelength-specific figure of merit for each channel-containing wavelength at the respective site; c) when at least one of the sites in the plurality of sites has not met the equalization condition: i) determining a site-specific figure of merit for each site that is a drop site for at least one channel; and ii) adjusting a transmit power of each channel in the plurality of channels as a function of the wavelength-specific figure of merit for the wavelength containing that channel at that channel's drop site and as a function of the site-specific figure of merit for that channel's drop site.