Provided are a polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensator and method
for automatically and rapidly compensating PMD occurring in an optical transmission
fiber in a high-speed optical transmission system. The polarization mode dispersion
compensator includes a separator and a differential time delay remover. The separator
aligns orthogonal first and second polarization components of a received optical
signal with respect to two orthogonal axes of a polarization beam splitter using
optical signal information output via a second path of a first path and the second
path of the two outputs of the polarization beam splitter, splits the first and
second polarization components, and transmits the first polarization component
via the first path and the second polarization component via the second path. The
differential time delay remover receives the first and second polarization components
that have been split to remove a differential time delay between the first and
second polarization components.