Systems and methods for optical communication with polarization diversity

A bidirectional optical transceiver, comprising:

• an optical receiver having a plurality of optical filters, each optical filter is configured to filter light at a respective carrier wavelength, each optical filter comprising a first optical path for receiving optical signals from a first input of the optical receiver and a second optical path for receiving optical signals from a second input of the optical receiver, wherein the first optical path and the second optical path have different optical lengths;
• a polarization splitter rotator (PSR) comprising a first optical port coupled to the first input of the optical receiver, and a second optical port coupled to the second input of the optical receiver, wherein the PSR is configured to:
• split an incoming optical signal into a first mode optical signal having a first polarization and a second mode optical signal having a second polarization;
• process the second mode optical signal to rotate the second polarization to be parallel to the first polarization, and
• output the first mode optical signal through the first port and the second mode optical signal through the second port;
• an optical transmitter;
• and
• an interleaver coupling the first port of the PSR to the optical transmitter and to the optical receiver.