Receiving apparatus and method for detecting, measuring and compensating waveform degradation of received signal

In a receiving apparatus, there are included a compensation characteristic variable type waveform degradation compensating unit (5) capable of compensating for waveform degradation of a received signal stemming from a transmission line (30), a received waveform measuring unit (8) for measuring waveform data on the received signal (which will be referred to hereinafter as "received waveform data), and a control unit (9) for controlling a compensation characteristic of the waveform degradation compensating unit (5) to minimize a difference between frequency data on the received signal, obtained by converting the received wave form data acquired by the received wave form measuring unit (8) into a frequency domain, and frequency data on a reference waveform free from waveform degradation. With this configuration, certain compensation for the waveform degradation of the received signal stemming from chromatic dispersion or the like becomes feasible without using a dispersion compensation fiber.