Chapter 1
Optical Communications Systems
1.1 Introduction
The historical–technological evolution of the optical fiber communication systems can follow the path proposed by Chraplyvy [1, prg 2. History], having anyway in mind that the improvement of the system performance has been strictly related to the technological development of the optical fibers (Figure 1.1) and the optoelectronic devices, mainly semiconductor lasers (Figure 1.2), electro-optic modulators, optical receivers and optical amplifiers.
Figure 1.1 Optical fiber cable.
Figure 1.2 Semiconductor lasers.
After the invention of the “optical waveguide” by Kao and Hockham ...
