In an optical amplifier of the present invention, an input light is supplied to one end of an optical fiber connected to an output port, and the power of a light in an opposite direction which is input to the output port from the one end of the optical fiber, is measured, thereby obtaining a stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) occurrence threshold in the optical fiber based on the measurement result. Then, using the SBS occurrence threshold, a relation been the input light power and an occurrence amount of the self phase modulation (SPM) or the like in the optical fiber is obtained to be reflected on a control of the optical amplifier, so that an occurrence of the SPM or the like in the optical fiber is suppressed. As a result, it becomes possible to accurately measure, with a simple configuration, the nonlinear optical properties of the optical fiber actually connected to the output port of the optical amplifier, so that the optical S/N ratio degradation due to a nonlinear optical effect can be effectively suppressed.