A method is provided for an 
equalization strategy for compensating channel distortions in a dual-polarization optical 
transport system wherein the received 
signal includes a complex 
signal of a first transmitted polarization component and a complex 
signal of a second transmitted polarization component. In a first step, a blind self-
recovery mode used a blind 
adaptation algorithm in calculating and modifying multiple complex 
equalizer transfer function coefficients to enable 
recovery of only the complex signal of the first transmitted polarization component. By recovering only a 
single polarization component in the first step the degenerate case of recovering only a single transmitted signal at both polarization component outputs of an 
equalizer is prevented. In a second step, 
equalization is performed in a training mode for calculating and modifying the multiple complex 
equalizer transfer function coefficients to enable 
recovery of the complex signals of the first and second transmitted polarization components. In a third step, 
equalization is performed in a data directed mode for continuing to calculate and modify the multiple complex equalizer 
transfer function coefficients to ensure continued recovery of the complex signals of the first and second transmitted polarization components. The method is suited for a 
digital signal processing implementation in a coherent 
receiver when a modulation scheme used on a transmitted signal is quadriphase-shift 
keying (QPSK). In other embodiments, the method can be used with modulation schemes such as binary PSK, M-ary PSK where M>4, or 
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (
QAM).