Devices and methods for dynamic dispersion compensation

A dispersion compensating device for an optical signal having at least one wavelength channel lying within a wavelength range, the dispersion compensating device comprising:

• a negative dispersion fiber having an input configured to receive the optical signal, the negative dispersion fiber having a length and a dispersion sufficient to remove any positive chirp from each wavelength channel of the optical signal, thereby outputting a negatively chirped optical signal;
• at least one device configured to amplify the negatively chirped optical signal;
• and
• a nonlinear positive dispersion fiber having an end configured to receive the amplified negatively chirped optical signal, the nonlinear positive dispersion fiber having a variable dispersion over its length wherein the nonlinear positive dispersion fiber comprises more than two fiber segments, each of said fiber segments being coupled to a previous fiber segment with a spectral filter located therebetween, each nonlinear positive dispersion fiber segment having different dispersion properties and the dispersion value at the front of each said fiber segment being equal to or lower than the dispersion value at the end of the previous fiber segment.

A dispersion compensating device for an optical signal having at least one wavelength channel lying within a wavelength range, the dispersion compensating device comprising:

• a negative dispersion fiber having an input configured to receive the optical signal, the negative dispersion fiber having a length and a dispersion sufficient to remove any positive chirp from each wavelength channel of the optical signal, thereby outputting a negatively chirped optical signal;
• a first interleaver configured to receive the negatively chirped optical signal and split the negatively chirped optical signal into a first subset including a first set of wavelength channels, and a second subset including a second set of wavelength channels;
• a first amplifying device configured to amplify the first subset;
• a first nonlinear positive dispersion fiber having an end configured to receive the amplified first subset;
• a second amplifying device configured to amplify the second subset;
• a second nonlinear positive dispersion fiber having an end configured to receive the amplified second subset, wherein at least one of said nonlinear positive dispersion fibers comprises more than two fiber segments, each of said fiber segments being coupled to a previous fiber segment with a spectral filter located therebetween, each nonlinear positive dispersion fiber segment having different dispersion properties and the dispersion value at the front of each said fiber segment being equal to or lower than the dispersion value at the end of the previous fiber segment.