Patent ID: 7027740

Claim:
A method comprising: pre-compensating an optical signal to compensate for a cumulative dispersion optimized for a representative optical span whose value depends on the average power evolution of the optical signal in an optical communications path, and to compensate for an amount of dispersion introduced into the optical communications path by any of a plurality of subsequent optical spans; wherein each of the subsequent optical spans contributes a dispersion to the optical signal, such that a total amount of said pre-compensating is determined by calculating an amount of net residual dispersion introduced into the optical communications path by the subsequent optical spans and subtracting the amount of calculated net residual dispersion from the cumulative dispersion optimized for a representative optical span times the total number of spans in the optical communications path, wherein the amount of net residual dispersion introduced into the optical communications path by the subsequent optical spans is equal to the sum of the net residual dispersion from the second span in the optical communications path to the last span in the optical communications path, and wherein the cumulative dispersion optimized for a representative optical span has a value that depends on the average power evolution of the optical signal in the optical communications path.