A method and apparatus for controlling the pump powers of a broadband DWDM optical
system using Raman amplification which determines pump settings that advantageously
minimize the peak-to-peak ripple of the channel powers with respect to a given
per-channel target. The illustrative method and apparatus first formulates a linear
programming optimization problem, and then solves the formulated linear program
in order to derive a new set of pump powers to be applied to the Raman amplification
pumps. Illustratively, the linear program may be solved with use of any conventional
linear programming solution technique, such as, for example, the simplex method.
