Lucent Technologies Inc.

Fitel USA Corporation

Richard J Ramsay

Benjamin John Eggleton

Paul Steinvurzel

Carmine James Pagano, Ii

John H Myers

A colorless tunable dispersion compensator (TDC) comprises a plurality of N separate dispersion compensation elements, each centered at a different wavelength used in the communication system. A single tuning element is coupled to the plurality of separate dispersion compensation elements. A 1-out-of-N selector (such as a 1&#xd7;N optical switch) is used to select the particular tunable dispersion compensation element to be implemented for an associated channel in the system. Advantageously, the same TDC can then be used in association with each channel in the communication system, as controlled by the 1-out-of-N selector to chose the particular compensation element for a specific channel wavelength.

Colorless tunable dispersion compensator

A passive fiber optic repeater bypass is provided which brings fault tolerance to repeatered fiber optic transmission systems. A fiber optic bypass provides an alternate signal path around failed repeaters. The bypass optical attenuation is set to ensure the bypass signal is sufficiently small so as not to interfere with the locally regenerated and transmitted signal, but sufficiently large to be received at the next repeater. In the event of a repeater failure, a repeater monitor disables the local laser transmitter allowing the bypass signal to be received at the next repeater.

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Somerville, NJ, United States of America

Richard J Ramsay