1) The document discusses reducing the effect of dispersion resulting from wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in optical networks. Dispersion occurs when light pulses spread out as they travel through fiber optic cables, which degrades signal quality over long distances.
2) WDM is used to increase network capacity but also introduces longer fiber lengths, exacerbating dispersion issues. Different types of dispersion are discussed, including chromatic dispersion which causes slower wavelengths to interfere with faster wavelengths from adjacent pulses.
3) Chromatic dispersion is modeled and compensated for using Gaussian minimum-shift keying modulation and linear filters, which can be applied at the transmitter or receiver to counteract the spreading effect of the fiber on light pulses.