Patent ID: 8290374

Claim:
A dispersion compensation method in an optical communication system, comprising: detecting, by an optical transponder unit (OTU) corresponding to a second wavelength, quality of service signals in a service channel used by a working path at the second wavelength, regulating a dispersion compensation value of the working path at the second wavelength according to the quality of service signals, compensating dispersion in the working path at the second wavelength according to a regulated dispersion compensation value, and transmitting the regulated dispersion compensation value to a non-working path at a first wavelength, wherein the non-working path at the first wavelength and the working path at the second wavelength use the same service channel; and receiving, by an OTU corresponding to the first wavelength, or by a tunable dispersion compensator (TDC) in the non-working path at the first wavelength, the regulated dispersion compensation value; and compensating dispersion in the non-working path at the first wavelength according to the regulated dispersion compensation value.