Abstract: System and method for equalizing a high bit rate optical communication channel in a symbol spaced adaptive Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) system, where the optical communication channel carries a signal that is sampled at a symbol rate. Accordingly, Anti Aliasing Filtering (which introduces distortions in the form of Deterministic Inter Symbol Interference D-ISI) is applied in a MIMO channel, in order to reduce the aliasing effect associated with symbol rate sampling. The Polarization Mode Dispersions introduced in the optical communication channel are solely compensated by a MIMO Equalizer, which ignores the Deterministic ISI (D-ISI) distortion. Then the Deterministic ISI (D-ISI) distortion is solely compensated by an independent Deterministic Equalizer (DE).