An all-optical real-time chromatic dispersion (CD) monitoring technique is proposed and demonstrated for 40 Gbit/s differential phase-shifts keying (DPSK) signal, utilizing the cross modulation effects of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The optical power of the output spectral components, which is from the probe’s frequency up to the signal bandwidth, is used for CD monitoring. This technique provides a wide monitoring range with large variation scale. The impacts of the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) on the CD monitoring results are theoretically analyzed and then experimentally investigated, showing that they have slight influence on the monitoring results within a certain range. Furthermore, simulated results for quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal at 80 Gbit/s are also demonstrated, indicating that this technique is suitable for advanced modulated format as well.