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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
Remarkable progress has been made in the lightguide technology over the past ten years. The realization of low loss optical fibers approaching intrinsic material limit and long life semiconductor lasers has stimulated rapid deployment of lightwave communication systems. Within the past five years the world wide fiber production capacity has grown from a few thousand to over one million kilometers per year. The impetus for this phenomenal growth can also be traced to recent advances in computer technology allowing low cost processing and storage of a great deal of complex information. This combination of information processing and transmission technologies is bringing a host of new services such as voice, data and visual communications, CATV, videotex and facsimile transmission, over the same network. One could therefore expect an accelerating growth in deployment of lightwave communication systems.