Patent ID: 7016583

Claim:
An optical transmission system for transmitting in a wavelength range, the system comprising: a plurality of sequential optical component sites optically connected by a plurality of dispersion managed spans, the plurality of sequential optical component sites including first, second and third component sites; wherein each dispersion managed span comprises M optical fiber portions of a first optical fiber type interconnected by N optical fiber portions of a second optical fiber type in an alternating arrangement of the first and second optical fiber types, wherein M is an even integer not less than two, and N is an odd integer not less than one; wherein the optical fiber portions of each dispersion managed span have optical fiber portions of alternating first and second optical fiber types; wherein the M optical fiber portions have a dispersion sign at a wavelength within the wavelength range, and wherein the N optical fiber portions have a dispersion sign at the wavelength opposite to the dispersion sign of the M optical fiber portions at the wavelength; and wherein the second optical component site includes an optical phase conjugator; wherein the dispersion managed span connecting the first and second optical component sites has the same number of M and N optical fiber portions as the dispersion managed span connecting the second and third optical component sites.