Textbook on the physical principles of optical fibers - for advanced undergraduates and graduates in physics or electrical engineering.

Introduction to Fiber-Optic Communications provides students with the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of modern optical fiber communications and applications, striking a fine balance between theory and practice that avoids excessive mathematics and derivations. Unlike other textbooks currently available, this book covers all of the important recent technologies and developments in the field, including electro-optic modulators, coherent optical systems, and silicon integrated photonic circuits. Filled with practical, relevant worked examples and exercise problems, the book presents complete coverage of the topics that optical and communications engineering students need to be successful. From principles of optical and optoelectronic components, to optical transmission system design, and from conventional optical fiber links, to more useful optical communication systems with advanced modulation formats and high-speed DSP, this book covers the necessities on the topic, even including today's important application areas of passive optical networks, datacenters and optical interconnections.

For courses in Introduction to Fiber Optics and Introduction to Optical Networking in departments of Electronics Technology and Electronics Engineering Technology. Also suitable for corporate training programs. Ideal for technicians, entry-level engineers, and other nonspecialists, this best-selling practical, thorough, and accessible introduction to fiber optics reflects the expertise of an author who has followed the field for over 25 years. Using a non-theoretical/non-mathematical approach, it explains the principles of optical fibers, describes components and how they work, explores the tools and techniques used to work with them and the devices used to connect fiber network, and concludes with applications showing how fibers are used in modern communication systems. It covers both existing systems and developing technology, so students can understand present systems and new developments.

* Ideal for those with some background in communications but without previous knowledge of fiber optics * Provides a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals of fiber optic systems and their individual components * Places emphasis on practical techniques of component installation and system design Fiber Optics is a technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light waves. Fiber optics have several advantages over traditional metal communications lines. While there are plenty of theoretical texts on fiber optics, high-level engineering texts and installation guides, there are few comprehensive applied texts for practicing engineers. This book covers design issues, installation and troubleshooting in the right depth for engineers working in industry. Readers will use this knowledge to develop the required techniques for design, installation and maintenance of their own fiber optic systems.

Within the past few decades, information technologies have been evolving at a tremendous rate, causing profound changes to our world and our ways of life. In particular, fiber optics has been playing an increasingly crucial role within the telecommunication revolution. Not only most long-distance links are fiber based, but optical fibers are increasingly approaching the individual end users, providing wide bandwidth links to support all kinds of data-intensive applications such as video, voice, and data services. As an engineering discipline, fiber optics is both fascinating and challenging. Fiber optics is an area that incorporates elements from a wide range of techno- gies including optics, microelectronics, quantum electronics, semiconductors, and networking. As a result of rapid changes in almost all of these areas, fiber optics is a fast evolving field. Therefore, the need for up-to-date texts that address this growing field from an interdisciplinary perspective persists. This book presents an overview of fiber optics from a practical, engineering perspective. Therefore, in addition to topics such as lasers, detectors, and optical fibers, several topics related to electronic circuits that generate, detect, and process the optical signals are covered. In other words, this book attempts to present fiber optics not so much in terms of a field of “optics” but more from the perspective of an engineering field within “optoelectronics.

This book tells you all you want to know about optical fibers: Their structure, their light-guiding mechanism, their material and manufacture, their use. It began with telephone, then came telefax and email. Today we use search engines, music downloads and internet videos, all of which require shuffling of bits and bytes by the zillions. The key to all this is the conduit: the line which is designed to carry massive amounts of data at breakneck speed. In their data carrying capacity optical fiber lines beat all other technologies (copper cable, microwave beacons, satellite links) hands down, at least in the long haul; wireless devices rely on fibers, too. Several effects tend to degrade the signal as it travels down the fiber: they are spelled out in detail. Nonlinear processes are given due consideration for a twofold reason: On the one hand they are fundamentally different from the more familiar processes in electrical cable. On the other hand, they form the basis of particularly interesting and innovative applications, provided they are understood well enough. A case in point is the use of so-called solitons, i.e. special pulses of light which have the wonderful property of being able to heal after perturbation. The book will take you from the physical basics of ray and beam optics, explain fiber structure and the functions of optical elements, and bring you to the forefront of both applications and research. The state of the art of high speed data transmission is described, and the use of fiber optic sensors in metrology is treated. The book is written in a pedagogical style so that students of both physics and electrical engineering, as well as technicians and engineers involved in optical technologies, will benefit. The new edition is largely updated and has new sections on nonlinear phenomena in fibers as well as on the latest trends in applications.

This text presents the history of the development of fibre optic technology, explaining the scientific challenges that needed to be overcome, the range of applications and future potential for this fundamental communications technology.