A technique for PMD mitigation in an optical communications system that utilizes
a plurality of polarization rotators in an optical fiber to continuously rotate
the polarization state of at least one optical signal that propagates through the
fiber. The optical fiber is segregated into a plurality of sections and the polarization
rotators are disposed between adjacent sections of the fiber. The polarization
state of at least one optical signal received from the first of a pair of adjacent
sections is continuously rotated by the polarization rotator prior to being transmitted
to the second of the pair of adjacent sections. The rotated optical signals are
collected at a receiver and corrected for errors using, for example, forward error correction.