Polarization mode dispersion(PMD) is considered to be the ultimate limitation in high-speed optical fiber communication systems. Establishing an effective control algorithm for adaptive PMD compensation is a challenging task, because PMD possesses the time-varying and statistical properties. The particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm is introduced into self-adaptive PMD compensation as feedback control algorithm. The experiment results show that PSO-based control algorithm has some unique features of rapid convergence to the global optimum without being trapped in local sub-optima and good robustness to noise in the optical fiber transmission line that has never been achieved in PMD compensation before. Establishing an effective control algorithm for adaptive PMD compensation is a challenging task, because PMD possesses the time-varying and statistical properties. The particle swarm The experiment results show that PSO-based control algorithm has some unique features of rapid convergence to the global optimum without being trapped in local sub-optima and good robustness to noise in the optical fiber transmission line that has never been achieved in PMD compensation before.