19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive review, October 8, 1999
This review is from: Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIA, Volume 3A (Optics and Photonics) (Hardcover)
Optical Fiber Telecommunications III is designed for anyone engaged in engineering work related to the fiber-optics telecommunications industry. There seems to be little doubt about the revolutionary path leading to full deployment of fiber in the telecommunications backbone network, or the trends moving fiber closer to and closer to end users. Yet, while this continual deepening of fiber into the national network progresses steadily, a new revolution has overtaken photonics in the backbone: dense wavelength-division multiplexing, or DWDM. DWDM, perhaps more than any other technology, is the reason that the third edition of this seminal work is needed today. It's not too surprising, then, that most of the third edition is directly or indirectly related to design concerns related to DWDM.
This text is best described as an engineer's desk reference. The scope is large, necessitating breaking the book into two volumes. Volume III A deals mostly with system issues and concerns, delving into more esoteric component issues primarily to illustrate the wider network implications. Volume III B deals more with specific component design issues, such as sources, detectors, and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs).
As a desk reference, there are few derivations of equations from first principles. Perhaps the closest derivation is that of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation in chapter 12 on soliton transmission. Even here, however, the derivation is sketchy at best. For the most part the book simply places the equations at the reader's disposal. I found most of the equations are explained well, and most of the chapter authors included numeric examples, charts, and graphs. This helps immensely in understanding the implications of the many equations presented throughout the text. For those interested in derivations, each chapter comes with extensive endnotes so that anyone interested in reviewing the original work can easily do so.
One problem with the text revolves around definitions of mathematical variables and constants. Though they are all defined as introduced to the reader, there is no glossary of these terms. I constantly found myself writing in the books margins little notes like "alpha is the total loss coefficient, first used in equation x on page y." Since different authors write each chapter in the book, it may not be practical to have a glossary of terms for the entire volume - usage will probably overlap. Still, it would be nice had the editors suggested that each chapter have a glossary of mathematical variables. It would make the book far more practical and useful as a desk reference. On a more positive note, however, the book does contain a detailed and useful index.
Even without derivations, the book contains a plethora of equations and charts to satisfy the needs of most quantitatively oriented engineers. It's a good introductory book for those with a modest background in optical telecommunications technology. It's also a useful book for those more familiar with the technology, but needing a handy reference source with most of the pertinent information conveniently bound between two covers. Volume A contains 15 chapters in roughly 600 pages. Volume B is slightly smaller, having 10 chapters in roughly 500 pages.
For me, the two most interesting and useful sections of the book were chapter 8, "Fiber nonlinearities and their impact on transmission systems," and chapter 12, "Solitons in high bit-rate, long-distance transmissions." Chapter 12 is probably one of the best written. Although the subject matter is among the most difficult covered in the book, L. F. Mollenauer, J.P. Gordon, and P. V. Mamyshev have done a remarkable job of explaining solitions in a quantitative, accurate, yet clear and concise manner.
The first chapter in the book, a brief overview by Ivan P. Kaminow, provides some interesting historical insights and background, but has relatively little pertinent information for the design engineer. The second chapter deals at a high level with SONET and ATM technologies, explaining the requirements that led to the development of these standards and some of their topologies such as chains and self-healing rings. Chapter 3 deals with coding and error correction in optical fiber. This chapter was interesting in its use of fundamental physics (such as quantum noise) to examine the need for coding.
The next chapters move from coding and protocol to issues in the physical layer. Chapter 6 deals with polarization effects, the origin of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and how to measure PMD. On a similar theme, chapter 7 deals with the subject of chromatic dispersion and, perhaps more importantly, the subject of dispersion compensation. One of the interesting facts about DWDM is that elimination of dispersion is no longer a design goal, as it is with single-wavelength transmission systems. In DWDM systems the designer wants just the right amount of dispersion - not too much, and not too little. There are even situations in which the dispersion map matters - in other words, you cannot always count on being able to place large bulk amounts of compensating dispersion just in front of the optical receiver. Sometimes you need to distribute it along the fiber's length.
Two chapters, 9 and 10, deal with the specific design concerns of terrestrial and undersea lightwave systems, while chapter 14 deals with the substantial concerns of analog video transmission over optical fibers. Chapter 11 deals with advances in high bit-rate transmission systems (this chapter tends to be somewhat dated, and the situation will only get worse with passing time). Chapter 13 surveys the types of fiber architectures in current and possibly future networks. Finally, Ivan P. Kaminow finishes the book with a chapter on advanced multi-access lightwave networks, which is primarily the switched DWDM network (another chapter subject to dating).
This is an extremely valuable book for anyone involved in Photonics in the telecommunications network. I highly recommend it. Whether you read it cover to cover, or simply keep it handy as a desk reference, I'm sure you will find it well worth the cover price.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
