In this paper, we propose a singular perturbation-like approach to EDFA gain controller design and analysis. Considering a three-level model of EDFA, a gain controller containing a state observer and a channel add/drop estimator is designed based on a singular perturbation - like concept. The proposed design methodology is shown to be effective and advantageous not only in theoretically verifying the asymptotic stability of systems with multi-time scales such as EDFA but also in designing an asymptotic estimator for channel add/drops which does not satisfy the matching condition.