Dispersion compensation for optical fiber systems

Much of the currently embedded optical fiber was originally designed for light with a wavelength of 1.3 microns. If this fiber is to be used with tomorrow's optically amplified, high-speed, long span-length lightwave system operating at 1.5 microns, the chromatic dispersion in the fiber must be compensated. Dispersion compensation will be required in long-haul l0 Gb/s systems using conventional fiber. Many compensation techniques have been demonstrated and they exhibit a variety of different and often complimentary properties. Transmitter compensation techniques are the most easily implemented but provide a limited amount of compensation. The most commercially advanced technique is negative dispersion fiber. Chirped Bragg gratings are advancing rapidly, but will always be hampered by their narrow bandwidth. The adoption of any particular technique for use in a high-speed network will depend on the constraints imposed by the, as yet, undefined network architecture.>