Patent ID: 7577366

Claim:
A dispersion compensation system comprising: a dispersion compensation module (DCM) operable to receive optical input and provide optical output having a negative dispersion relative to the optical input, wherein the DCM comprises a plurality of dispersion compensation fibers having a negative dispersion; a dispersion enhancement module (DEM) adapted to be optically coupled between the DCM and an optical fiber having a positive dispersion, the DEM operably including a plurality of dispersion enhancement fibers and operable to selectively increase the positive dispersion provided by the optical fiber by a selected one of a plurality of amounts and to provide the optical input to the DCM, the optical input having a positive dispersion substantially equal to the positive dispersion of the optical fiber plus the selected one of the amounts of dispersion in the DEM; and wherein the DEM comprises: a memory storing a value of the negative dispersion of the DCM; and a controller operable to determine the negative dispersion of the DCM to determine the positive dispersion of the optical fiber, and to determine the selected one of the amounts of dispersion in the DEM to provide the optical input having a positive dispersion substantially equal to an inverse of the negative dispersion of the DCM, the controller further operable to detect a switch from the optical fiber to a backup optical transport fiber, the backup transport fiber having a third positive dispersion, and to reconfigure the dispersion enhancement module to provide a fourth positive dispersion, the sum of the third positive dispersion and the fourth positive dispersion substantially equal to the magnitude of the negative dispersion.