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Abstract

An optical demultiplexer (13, 30) for wavelength division multiplex WDM optical radiation comprising a plurality of wavelength channels (Ch₁ . . . Ch₁₆) spaced over a wavelength spectrum said demultiplexer being for separating the WDM radiation into individual wavelength channels is described. The demultiplexer comprises a first demultiplexer (12) for dividing the W-DM radiation into a plurality of sub-bands (Ch₁ . . . Ch₄, Ch₅ . . . Ch₈, Ch₉ . . . Ch₁₂, Ch₁₃ . . . Ch₁₆) each comprising a plurality of adjacent wavelength channels and each of which appears at a respective output (13) of the demultiplexer (12), and one or more demultiplexer arrangement (30) for separating each sub-band into individual wavelength channels each of which appears at a respective output (20) and is characterised in that the or each demultiplexer arrangement (30) comprises an optical amplifier (15) for optically amplifying all channels of the sub-band; a demultiplexer (16) for separating the channels of the sub-band such that each to appears at a respective output (20); power monitoring means (18) for measuring the power (P₁ . . . P₄) of each wavelength channel (Ch₁ . . . Ch₄) at the respective output; and control means (34) for controlling operation of the optical amplifier (15) in dependence on the measured power of each wavelength channel such as control the power of each wavelength channel to a predetermined power level.

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