SHARED OPTICAL PUMPS AMONG MULTIPLE FIBER CHANNELS

Aspects of an optical communications network are described that include two or more optical fibers arranged to allow communication in the same direction. The optical network includes a first optical amplifier coupled to the first optical fiber, a second optical amplifier coupled to the second optical fiber, a first optical pump to provide optical power to the first optical fiber, and a second pump to provide optical power to both the first and the second optical fibers. By sharing the second pump between the first and the second optical fibers, a need to deploy additional pumps is alleviated. Scaling of the optical network to include additional optical fibers provides further cost savings by allowing more pumps to be shared among the multiple optical fibers.