In one embodiment of the invention a dispersion compensator is provided for use in a dense wavelength division multiplexed optical communication system. The dispersion compensator comprises a periodic-group-delay dispersion compensation module which provides a portion of the dispersion compensation for a dispersion managed span of the optical communication system. A remaining portion of the dispersion compensation for the dispersion managed span is provided by dispersion compensating fiber. The portions of the dispersion compensation provided by each of the periodic-group-delay dispersion compensation module and the dispersion compensating fiber is selected such that the collision-induced timing jitter is reduced.