Technology Close-Up

Lisa Huff and Christine Mulrooney

As optical networks increase data rates to 10 Gb/s and beyond, the effects of chromatic and polarization mode dispersion become much more significant. This has ignited interest in dynamic or tunable dispersion compensators that, unlike static compensation methods optimized for – and limited to – a specific wavelength range, compensate for dispersion equally for each wavelength.

Although questions remain about if, when and where networks will require tunable dispersion compensation, component manufacturers are pursuing several solutions to the problem, each presenting advantages and disadvantages…