Patent ID: 6782159
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
A method for determining the optimal location and value of one or more dispersion compensating modules (DCMs) in an optical network, comprising the steps of:(a) determining a lightpath topology in the network; (b) introducing and initializing a data structure having multiple entries, each entry in the data structure being used for storing DCM locations and values in the network and a score measuring the effectiveness of dispersion compensation in the network by the stored DCMs; (c) extracting the entry from the data structure, which has the lowest score and determining if the effective dispersion on the lightpaths in the network having the stored DCMs from the extracted entries are substantially zero, the effective dispersion being an amount of dispersion accumulated along a lightpath that exceeds the maximum positive dispersion value Pos_Disp_Limit specified for the network; (d) if the effective dispersions on a lightpath is not substantially zero, expanding the extracted entry into multiple entries by adding available combinations of DCM location and value to the extracted entry; (e) calculating a score for each expanded entry and discarding those entries that cause the accumulated dispersion on any lightpath to be less than the maximum negative dispersion limit Neg_Disp_Limit of the network; (f) inserting the expanded entries into said data structure; and (g) repeating the steps (c) to (f) until the effective dispersions are substantially zero for the extracted entry in the step (c).