An apparatus and method are described for combining optical amplification and 
dispersion compensation in a Raman 
amplifier. A Dispersion-Managing Raman 
Amplifier (DMRA) combines 
Raman amplification with 
dispersion compensation by selecting the length and dispersion of the 
gain fiber to balance the dispersion of the link. This 
gain fiber is also single-mode at the 
signal and pump wavelengths. The pumping level is adjusted to balance the losses from the 
gain fiber and transmission link, while the pumping configuration is selected to remain within the 3 dB loss length for the pumping light. When the 
amplifier is split into two segments, the two segments may be joined by an 
isolator, a gain 
equalization element, and / or an optical add / drop 
multiplexer. For 
WDM transmission systems based on dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF), operation in the “violet band” between 1430–1530 nm is based on 
Raman amplification. By using a DMRA, a dispersion and nonlinearity managed 
system can be implemented. In particular, 4WM does not phase match in such a 
system, and modulation 
instability is absent in the transmission link. Furthermore, gain 
equalization can be added to the DMRA by cascading one or two Mach-Zehnder frequency filters. The invention also includes a method for symmetrically adding channels below and above the C-band, the gain tilt within the C-band can be minimized. Therefore, a roughly equal number of channels should be placed in the short-
wavelength S-band and the long-
wavelength L-band to minimize the Raman 
energy exchange in the C-band. Also, whereas C- and L-bands can be amplified using 
erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, the S-band can use either discrete or distributed 
Raman amplifiers. To minimize the interaction between pumps for different bands, alternate band pumps can be spatially dispersed and / or cross-polarized. The distributed 
Raman amplification can be achieved by pumping the 
transmission line with discrete 
laser diodes or by a Raman oscillator.