Optical Networks: A Practical Perspective (Second Edition) (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

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.

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.


Nicely Balanced Introduction   October 4, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is surely the best book on fiber optics networks. It's that rarity - an accessible academic book which doesn't ignore the practical side of things either. Therefore it is useful both as a textbook as well as a refresher for professionals.

We studied the draft of this book in a course in the Indian Institute of Science in 1997 conducted by Professor K.N.Sivarajan, one of authors and a world-wide authority on the subject. It was an enjoyable course,and we felt that we were truly studying the latest technology - in fact, even some of the future technology, since the book included architectures that hadn't been built yet(ie conceptual architectures)!

Later on, as a professional systems engineer i worked in a team writing firmware for a SONET based product,and this book was much admired by my colleagues as well.

This book has all the basic scientific and engineering concepts and considerations involved in understanding and designing fiber optic networks. The treatment is mathematical and the writing is lucid.

Towards the later part, there are detailed case studies that will be truly helpful for the professionals designing their own networks.

Since it was writen almost 4 years ago, it cannot have all the latest information is this rapidly expanding field - but for a sound, balanced introduction to the fundamentals, this is your book.


Best book on Optical Networks   June 28, 2000
 40 out of 40 found this review helpful

Over the past year, I've been involved in a project which required me to learn a lot more about optical networks. In addition to reading the papers from ANSI T1X1 and the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), I purchased several books on the subject, including Siller and Shafi's "SONET/SDH," Goralski's "SONET" and Laches' "Fiber Optic Communications". Ramaswami and Sivarajan's book "Optical Networks" is definitely the best of the group. "SONET/SDH" gives a good overview, but you need to already know something about SONET in order to understand it. Goralski's "SONET" is too basic, while "Fiber Optic Communications" is too theoretical. "Optical Networks" is "just right" (to quote a famous young lady's comments about a baby bear's porridge). Whenever I need to know something about optical networks, this is the book I turn to. The only problem is that the field of optical networks is moving quite fast right now and this book provides a snapshot of the 1997-1998 timeframe. I wish the authors would put up a web site discussing some of the recent activity in the field, but I suppose it's a bit much to ask them to devote their lives to the book. All in all, if you want an excellent introduction to optical networks, this is the book for you.


An Engineering Perspective   June 10, 2000
 5 out of 8 found this review helpful

I found the book highly valuable and a must for all students and Telecom/Networkengineers. Although theortical it gives considerable insight into technology. Balaji Sundararajan, Cisco Systems, Petaluma, California. (Previously with Singapore Network Services, Singapore.