1. A compound optical combiner for combining multiple optical signals, comprising: a set of combiners, wherein the set of combiners includes at least one polarization combiner optically and physically connected to at least one non-polarization combiner, wherein the non-polarization combiner combines a first set of input signals while preserving a polarization of each input signal in the first set of signals, and wherein the polarization combiner combines a second set of input signals while converting the polarization of at least one input signal in the second set of signals.