The present invention provides devices and methods for dynamic dispersion
compensation. According to one embodiment of the invention, a dispersion
compensating device includes a negative dispersion fiber having an input
configured to receive the optical signal, the negative dispersion fiber
having a length and dispersion sufficient to remove any positive chirp
from each wavelength channel of the optical signal, thereby outputting a
negatively chirped optical signal; an amplifying device configured to
amplify the negatively chirped optical signal; and a nonlinear positive
dispersion fiber configured to receive the negatively chirped optical
signal. The devices of the present invention provide broadband
compensation for systems having a wide range of variable residual
dispersions.