Xtera Communications, Inc.

Michel W Chbat

Herve A Fevrier

Andrej B Puc

Pavle Gavrilovic

Sergey P Burtsev

Paul D Pantages

Hyunchin Kim

Jason D Henrie

Anand K Gonuguntla

Ned A Weaver

Zhi Feng

Frederic L Barthelemy

An optical amplifier includes at least one amplification stage having a saturation recovery time of less than one (1) millisecond. The amplification stage includes a gain medium operable to receive at least one pump signal and to receive from a multiple span communication link an optical signal comprising a leading edge. The at least one pump signal and the optical signal travel in the same direction at approximately the same speed through at least a portion of the gain medium. In one particular embodiment the leading edge of the optical signal after passing through a plurality of amplifiers when received by a receiver coupled to the communication link comprises a peak power that is no more than ten times the average power of the optical signal at the receiver.

Reducing leading edge transients using co-propagating pumps

In one aspect of the invention, a system operable to reduce degradation of an optical signal to noise ratio where signals having multiple wavelengths are communicated over a common optical link includes an amplifier assembly operable to introduce to a lower communication band a first gain and to introduce to a higher communication band a second gain that is different from the first gain. In addition, the system is operable to introduce a variable gain tilt into at least one of the communication bands. The different gains introduced to the higher and lower bands and the variable gain tilt introduced into at least one of the bands result in a reduction of a degradation of optical signal to noise ratio that could otherwise be caused by wavelength dependent attenuation when the communication bands are combined and communicated over an optical link.

Method and system for reducing degradation of optical signal to noise ratio

In one aspect of the invention, a method of managing one or more optical elements includes storing in a memory, provisioning information describing at least one setting of an optical element and monitored information describing at least one operational characteristic of the optical element. At least a portion of the monitored information is correlated with at least a portion of the provisioning information. The method further includes maintaining in the memory, a correlation history comprising the provisioning information stored over time and the monitored information correlated to that provisioning information.

Method and apparatus for optical element management

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Allen, TX, United States of America

Michel W Chbat