In a dispersion compensating apparatus, a reference identifying unit identifies a reference (X dB down) that makes a penalty lower than a predetermined value in accordance with optical signal information and a reference identifying table, and a VIPA plate temperature adjusting unit adjusts a refractive index of a VIPA plate by modifying a temperature of the VIPA plate so that a transmission center wavelength derived from the reference matches the wavelength defined by an ITU-T Grid. If a dispersion compensation value setting unit performs an optimal residual dispersion value search, the VIPA plate temperature adjusting unit determines if a filtering penalty is lower than a predetermined value in accordance with a penalty management table. If the filtering penalty is lower than the predetermined value, temperature adjustment of the VIPA plate is not performed.