An optical communication system that compensate for the dispersion of an optical fiber serving as a transmission path is provided. In its simplest form, a dispersion compensating fiber having a sufficient length to compensate for the chromatic dispersion of the optical fiber is divided into portions, each portion having a length selected so as to maintain a linear characteristic of a relative intensity noise of the dispersion compensating fiber, and the divided portions of the dispersion compensating fiber are inserted in the path of the optical fiber while they are optically separated.