Transmit power equalization in a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer

An optical system including a ROADM including previously in-service channels; a SDN computing module in communication with the ROADM over a DCN, the SDN computing module providing an instruction to place in-service an additional channel at the ROADM; an optical controller included by the ROADM and configured to, in response to the instruction to place in-service the additional channel at the ROADM: obtain optical power targets for each in-service channel including the previously in-service channels and the additional in-service channel; equalize a transmit power for each in-service channel of the ROADM, including: identify the transmit power of each in-service channel; transition each in-service channel to a power mode; adjust the transmit power of each in-service channel based on, for each in-service channel, the optical power target for the in-service channel and the identified transmit power for the in-service channel; and transition each in-service channel to a steady state mode.