A method is provided for performing chromatic dispersion (CD) pre-compensation. The method generates an electronic signal at a transmitter, and uses a transmit CD compensation estimate to compute a CD pre-compensation filter. The transmit CD pre-compensation filter is used to process the electronic signal, generating a pre-compensated electronic signal. The pre-compensated electronic signal is converted into an optical signal and transmitted to an optical receiver via an optical channel. In one aspect, the transmitter generates a test electronic signal and the CD compensation estimate uses a first dispersion value to compute a first CD compensation filter. The transmitter accepts a residual dispersion estimate of the test optical signal from the first optical receiver CD compensation filter, generated from a (receiver-side) CD estimate, and then the transmit CD estimate can be modified in response to the combination of the first dispersion value and residual dispersion estimate.