Optical communications is advancing at nearly the speed of light. This preview of March’s Optical Fiber Conference/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference describes current trends, including the increasing role of wireless technologies and the continued integration of optics with other networking layers.
The recent award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to Charles Kao—who is widely regarded as the father of fiber-optic communications—underscores the tremendous changes that optical fiber has brought about in modern society. Fiber optics has revolutionized the way we receive information and communicate with one another, and it has played a major role in ushering in the Information Age. The field continues to advance rapidly, as measured by deployed capacity, the technology being deployed, the systems under development and the research results being released.
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