This thorough introduction to the principles of fiber-optic communications carefully illustrates their application. The book’s strength is in its presentation of how to apply these principles, but it is weak on their derivation; for example, the reader learns how to apply Snell’s law, but not how it was derived.

This new version of the book is very similar to the first edition. Palais takes the reader from the concept of an optical fiber and how light is transmitted all the way to the choice of couplers and connectors in building a fiber-optic system. The first three chapters are an introduction to the nature of optics, light, and fiber-optic communication. Chapters 4 and 5 explain the nature and limits of waveguides and how to determine the best methods to connect them. Chapters 6 and 7 deal with methods of sending light into and receiving light from fibers. Chapter 8 discusses the problems of connecting optical fiber. Chapter 9 is a cursory treatment of fiber-optic distribution methods. The concluding chapter discusses a simple point-to-point implementation.

Palais intends this book as both an introductory text and a practical guide for the system designer, but it does not succeed in the latter goal. The chapter on networks is too limited to be useful to a network designer. The book is not sufficiently current or detailed to be an implementation guide. The ANSI X3T9.5 committee has proposed a fiber network standard, called fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), which this text does not even mention. Because of current advances in connectivity, which Palais also omits, the committee has proposed a version called FDDI-II, which will allow combined voice and data by connecting PBXs to the network.

The book does, however, succeed admirably as an introductory text in fiber-optic communications. The illustrations on almost every page clarify and add to the text. The author uses tables effectively. For example, he introduces the concept of waveguides in chapter 5 and lists the possible waveguides in a table. By the end of the chapter the reader has learned about the significance of core diameter, numerical aperture, attenuation, bandwidth, and wavelength; a revision of the introductory waveguide table includes all of these. Each chapter ends with useful exercises, and answers appear at the end of the text.

The references at the end of each chapter are disappointing. Almost all the references in this second edition predate the 1984 publication of the first edition. This is of particular concern in the chapters about new devices. The differences between the first and second editions are minimal: the structure is the same, the illustrations have only minimal changes, and fewer than ten of the references are new.

The choice of topics, the clarity of the presentation, and the very effective use of charts, tables, graphs, and exercises make this an excellent introductory text in fiber optics for students with some mathematical sophistication. Although it is not about communication theory, the first three chapters would be useful in the fiber optics section of a data communications course. This good general work should be available to those with a beginning interest in fiber optics. For readers with no interest in the exercises, the first edition presents this material just as well as the second.9L