A PMD emulation, measurement and compensation device is based upon an emulation device having a piece of fiber having a fixed differential group delay (DGD) and another short piece of fiber (or double refracting crystal) having a variable differential group delay (T-DGD). The two pieces of fiber are coupled with a non-zero torsional angle between their respective double refractive axes, preferably 45. A fiber squeezer/stretcher is used to provide the variable DGD for the short piece of fiber. Various serial couplings of DGD and T-DGD fiber may be added to provide greater control and accuracy, with the torsional angles preferably alternating. Such an emulation device may be incorporated into a measurement device to measure the PMD-related distortion of an optical signal. Further the measurement device may be used in a PMD compensator where an emulation device in series with the optical signal path is controlled until the measured PMD in the PMD-related distorted optical signal is minimized.