Fully half of this book has more to do with network engineering than with theoretical matters. The authors take care to discuss all aspects of optical data communications with efficiency (in terms of capacity utilization, management effort, and monetary cost) in mind. There's not a lot of discussion of vendors' specific products, so you'll have to look elsewhere for configuration instructions. But for getting your network designed and understanding how its components communicate data and provide redundancy--as well as for providing reference to other authoritative works--this book is tops. --David Wall

Topics covered: Tools and technologies for communicating data (including digitized voice signals) over fiber-optic cables. SONET gets a lot of attention, as does wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) as a technique for increasing capacity. Network design--with an eye toward efficiency and survivability--is dealt with in authoritative detail.

Product Description

This fully updated and expanded second edition of Optical Networks: A Practical Perspective succeeds the first as the authoritative source for information on optical networking technologies and techniques. Written by two of the field's most respected individuals, it covers componentry and transmission in detail but also emphasizes the practical networking issues that affect organizations as they evaluate, deploy, or develop optical solutions.

This book captures all the hard-to-find information on architecture, control and management, and other communications topics that will affect you every step of the way-from planning to decision-making to implementation to ongoing maintenance. If your goal is to thoroughly understand practical optical networks, this book should be your first and foremost resource.

* Focuses on practical, networking-specific issues: everything you need to know to implement currently available optical solutions.
* Provides the transmission and component details you need to understand and assess competing technologies.
* Offers updated and expanded coverage of propagation, lasers and optical switching technology, network design, transmission design, IP over WDM, wavelength routing, optical standards, and more.

The second part of this book deals with optical network architecture and algorithms. The sixth chapter emphasizes the necessity of optical fiber and includes the architecture of SONET/SDH. The seventh chapter illustrates the Broadcast and Select Wavelength Division Multiplexing Networks widely used in LANs and WANs, while the next chapter covers the architecture and algorithms employed in Wavelength Routed Networks for WANs. Chapter nine introduces the notion of Virtual topology design which is useful in integrating IP and ATM networks over the Optical layer. Control and management, that is, configuration, equipment, fault, failure, safety, management form the crux of the tenth chapter. Chapter eleven describes the on going research activities of various testbeds on Wavelength Routed Networks. Chapter twelve provides optical network solutions for Fiber-to-the-home access network applications. The thirteenth chapter emphasizes the issues faced by the network operators in upgrading the existing networks. The last chapter explores Packet Switched Optical Networks. This portion of the book is useful for students of Computer Science and Engineering.

The authors have covered a wide range of topics, from physics of the optical fiber to the networking aspects. The book is very simple to read, easy to absorb, and exceptionally exciting in the world of optical networks. The authors have taken lot of care to design the book for an academic curriculum without sacrificing the depth of the topics and it is a very useful book for research students.

The book is an admirable piece of work, eminently scientific in concept, and elegant in style. It is an exceedingly stimulating book with theoretical rigor and practical in approach which is too often lacking in works on optical communication. The results are profound and enlightening. There is a smooth flow of the concepts from the beginning to the end. The exercises in the chapter enables the student to check his understanding of the concepts. A number of useful references for further reading are included at the end of the chapters. It is indeed a competent work signaling a definitive contribution to optical communication. No future student of the fortunes of optical communications can afford to overlook it. This book deserves to be read and reread by each and every student of optical communications.

Venugopal K. R. Department of Computer Science and Engineering. University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering. K. R. Circle. Bangalore - 560 001.


Excellent "Big Picture" book for students in optics   January 14, 2002
Jeremy H. (Concord, NC USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I got this book while working on my masters in electro-optics, and found that it completed the big picture of optical communications and how network components fit together which was lacking in my detailed graduate work. I especially recommend it to those with a background other than EE, as it fills in a lot of gaps that EE folks assume that others know.

It starts off pretty light and qualitative, then begins incorporating some equations and formulas to accompany the qualitative descriptions. It does not waist time deriving anything, nor will you find pages of just mathematical equations. It has references and problems at the end of each chapter for the more technical reader.

For non-technical readers, this book is not light reading, but if you are patient enough to breeze over certain sections of math, you will find plenty of useful qualitative descriptions that do not depend on a full understanding of the math. There are even large sections of the book with no math at all.

In short, this book offers an excellent bridge between quantitative and qualitative descriptions of optical communications and optical networks.


Excellent in-depth analysis and conceptual understanding   March 22, 2000
Rajesh Krishnaswamy (New Jersey, USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

This book has an ideal combination of in-depth analysis and conceptual understanding of optical components, optical transmission system and optical networking. The first half of the book is devoted in explaining optical fibre transmission properties, working of optical modules, and optical transmission system engineering. The second half of the book explains the evolution of optical networking starting from point to point optical transport to current trends in optical networking i.e, wavelength routed optical networks. The various networking strategies for realizing access optical networks and wavelength routing optical networks are covered extensively. A whole chapter is devoted to control and management functions needed in these networks. There is also an excellent compendium of the various optical networking testbeds realized in industries and research labs.

This book is a must possesion for anyone involved in technical aspects of the optical transport/ networking.


Excellent and highly recommended reading   August 15, 1999
Poompat Saengudomlert (tengo@mit.edu) (Cambridge, MA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

If you are interested in learning about optical networking, this book is very accessible and can serve as an excellent guide to this exciting field. Although it is not my first book about optical networks, I learnt much more from the reading since the book is amazingly comprehensive (it covers all important aspects of optical networks: physical components, signal modulation, transmission system engineering, control and management, topology designs, specific examples of testbeds, and related future technologies). A big thumb up!!!