Tuneable Optical Dispersion Compensators for Dynamic Optical Networks

Fiber chromatic dispersion can severely degrade the performance of optical networks at high bit rates. This impairment can be controlled using dispersion compensators. However, in advanced optical networks, changes in the environment surrounding the fiber and/or multi-path topologies need tuneable dispersion compensators with high tuning range and fast tuning times. This paper gives an overview of possible techniques that can be used to control the dispersion in a dynamic way.