Patent ID: 6965738

Claim:
A dispersion compensation system for use in an optical transmission system to compensate for signal distortion of an optical signal, the system comprising: a first transceiver, the first transceiver for generating the optical signal; an optical line coupled to the first transceiver, the optical line transmitting the optical signal; a second transceiver coupled to the optical line, the second transceiver for receiving the optical signal; a plurality of amplifiers coupled to the optical line, wherein the amplifiers are spaced periodically throughout the optical line forming span distances, wherein the amplifiers amplify the optical signal and wherein the span distances are variable; a plurality of dispersion compensation modules coupled to the plurality of amplifiers, the dispersion compensation modules comprising: a coarse granularity module, wherein the coarse granularity module has a resolution of at least 5 km; a connector connected to the coarse granularity module; a fine granularity module connected to the connector, wherein the fine granularity module has a resolution of at least 1 km; wherein the coarse granularity module and the fine granularity module are connected by a single connection and the coarse granularity module and the fine granularity module correct the dispersion of the optical signal accumulated in the variable span distance; a supervisory channel coupled to the plurality of in-line amplifiers; a plurality of controllers resident in at least a portion of the plurality of in-line amplifiers, each controller coupled to the supervisory channel; and, wherein the dispersion compensation modules further comprise: a first memory device coupled to the coarse granularity module; a second memory coupled to the fine granularity module; and, wherein the first and second memory devices are in communication with one of the plurality of controllers.