Pump assembly employing coupled radiation sources for multiple fibers

A pump assembly for an optical amplifier comprising:

• a plurality of pump radiation sources, each pump radiation source adapted to produce radiation having a set of pump wavelengths and pump powers corresponding to the respective pump wavelengths, wherein at least one set is different from at least one other set;
• a plurality of pump radiation combiners, each pump radiation combiner coupling the radiation of a respective set of pump wavelengths of a respective source of the plurality of pump radiation sources and outputting the respective coupled radiation having coupled radiation profiles via a respective pump radiation combiner output;
• a P×V coupler, optically coupled to the outputs of the pump radiation combiners, that receives the coupled radiation from the pump radiation combiners and outputs V pump radiation profiles to respective of V coupler outputs;
• and
• a plurality of pump signal combiners, each optically coupled to a respective coupler output of the V coupler outputs, which are adapted to couple an optical signal with the respective pump radiation profiles, wherein at least one of the V pump radiation profiles coupled to the pump signal combiners has a different power than at least one of the other V pump radiation profiles.

An optical transmission system comprising:

• an optical signal transmitter adapted to transmit multiple optical signals, the multiple optical signals having respective different wavelengths;
• an optical amplifier adapted to amplify at least one of the multiple optical signals, the optical amplifier comprising:
• a plurality of pump radiation sources, each pump radiation source adapted to produce radiation having a set of pump wavelengths and pump powers corresponding to the respective pump wavelengths, wherein at least one set is different from at least one other set;
• a plurality of pump radiation combiners, each pump radiation combiner coupling the radiation of a respective set of pump wavelengths of a respective source of the plurality of pump radiation sources and outputting the respective coupled radiation having coupled radiation profiles via a respective pump radiation combiner output;
• a P×V coupler, optically coupled to the outputs of the pump radiation combiners, that receives the coupled radiation from the pump radiation combiners and outputs V pump radiation profiles to respective of V coupler outputs;
• and
• a plurality of pump signal combiners, each optically coupled to a respective coupler output of the V coupler outputs, which are adapted to couple an optical signal with the respective pump radiation profiles, wherein at least one of the V pump radiation profiles coupled to the pump signal combiners has a different power than at least one of the other V pump radiation profiles;
• and
• an optical signal receiver adapted to receive the multiple optical signals including the amplified at least one of the multiple optical signals.