Optical Fiber Communications Principles and Practice

The field of fibre optics communications has exploded over the past two decades. Fibre is an integral part of modern day communication infrastructure and can be found along roads, in buildings, hospitals and machinery. Fibre optic communication has revolutionised the telecommunications industry. It has also made its presence widely felt within the data networking community as well. Using fibre optic cable, optical communications have enabled telecommunications links to be made over much greater distances and with much lower levels of loss in the transmission medium and possibly most important of all, fiber optical communications has enabled much higher data rates to be accommodated. Optical fibers can be used to transmit light and thus information over long distances. Fiber-based systems have largely replaced radio transmitter systems for long-haul optical data transmission. They are widely used for telephony, but also for Internet traffic, long high-speed local area networks (LANs), cable TV (CATV), and increasingly also for shorter distances within buildings. In most cases, silica fibers are used, except for very short distances, where plastic optical fibers can be advantageous. The basic components are light signal transmitter, the optical fiber, and the photo detecting receiver. The additional elements such as fiber and cable splicers and connectors, regenerators, beam splitters, and optical amplifiers are employed to improve the performance of the communication system. The book offers a completely up-to-date, accessible, and in-depth introduction to the principles and applications of optical fiber communications. It describes the recent developments in optical fiber communication materials, devices, components, and systems.