In accordance with the invention, an optical fiber communication system is provided with a tunable linearly chirped Bragg grating in high birefringence fiber for reduction of polarization mode dispersion without increasing chromatic dispersion. A first embodiment using a single grating can be tuned for optimal PMD compensation, optimal chromatic compensation or optimal simultaneous compensation. Alternative embodiments using a plurality of gratings permit simultaneous compensation of both PMD and chromatic dispersion.