Methods and apparatus for optical networks

1. A control system comprising:

an optical fiber;

an optical filter on opposing ends of the optical fiber, said optical filter having a first port that couples with the optical fiber, a second port that couples an optical supervisory channel with the optical fiber and a third port that couples a transport channel with the optical fiber and where the optical filter separates the optical supervisory channel from the transport channel;

at least one measurement module coupled to the optical fiber through the optical supervisory channel, the module includes circuitry to determine a transit time between first and second ends of a traffic carrying optical fiber when in a first mode, the module also includes circuitry to loop back a received optical signal when in a second mode and, where the module includes one of a hardware timer or a software timer to accumulate a representation of the transit time; and

circuitry responsive to the determined transit time, to determine a degree of chromatic dispersion.

2. A system as in claim 1 which includes a multi-state control element.

3. A system as in claim 1 which includes additional circuitry, responsive to the representation to establish a degree of chromatic dispersion.

4. A system as in claim 3 which includes a dispersion compensation element coupled to the additional circuitry.

5. An apparatus for compensating chromatic dispersion of an optical fiber where the apparatus comprises:

an optical supervisory channel;

a transport channel:

an optical filter on opposing ends of an optical fiber, said optical filter having a first port that couples with the optical fiber, a second port that couples the optical supervisory channel with the optical fiber and a third port that couples the transport channel with the optical fiber and where the optical filter separates the optical supervisory channel from the transport channel;

first and second spaced apart network elements, the elements are each coupled to a traffic carrying optical fiber through the optical supervisory channel;

first and second substantially identical measurement modules with the first module coupled to the first element and the second module coupled to the second element, at least one of the modules includes one of a hardware timer or a software timer to accumulate a representation of a round trip transit time of a Measurement Marker word between the elements, the modules each include control circuitry that receives in input signal to initiate a round trip measurement transmission between the elements while traffic is being carried between elements; and

additional circuitry, responsive to contents of the timer, to determine chromatic dispersion of the fiber between the elements.

6. An apparatus as in claim 5 wherein the control circuitry also initiates operation of the timer, and responsive to a received measurement transmission, a receiving module enters a loop back performed indicator thereinto and returns the transmission to a transmitting module which in response thereto terminates operation of timer; and at least one device that compensates chromatic dispersion, coupled to one of the elements.

7. An apparatus as in claim 6 where each module includes circuitry to enter a loop back indicium into the measurement transmission to the other module and where the other module responds thereto and enters the loop back performed indicator into the received transmission.

8. An apparatus as in claim 7 where the chromatic dispersion determining circuitry includes a plurality of pre-stored values of effective group index of refraction.

9. An apparatus as in claim 7 where the chromatic dispersion determining circuitry includes at least one pre-stored chromatic dispersion constant.

10. An apparatus as in claim 7 where in the absence of the loop back indicium, the other module does not return the transmission to the transmitting module.