The field of fiber optics has come a long way; while it began as a purely interesting field of science, it has become an indispensable and promising technology with various uses. Since my background is in data networking, I can mainly assess the merit of the book from this perspective. There is hardly any networking professional who has not been confronted with optical links and networks. We generally appreciate their high throughput, reliability, and resilience, but I believe that most of today’s network engineers lack an understanding of the underlying infrastructure and the physical details derived from optics principles. We definitely need a more in-depth understanding of fiber optic essentials, as we will be increasingly working with fiber--and even wireless--optics, thanks to its qualities for data, voice, and video communications in various types of networks: sensor/home/enterprise and local/metropolitan/wide area.

The book does not go too deeply into optical communications networks, but clarifies the underlying principles of what happens at the very bottom of any optical infrastructure, including answering the follow-up questions: why and how. For all of us who admire optics as a complex science, it may come as a surprise that all of these “essentials” are squeezed into a book of less than 250 pages. The text is compact enough to provide the reader with all the information necessary to understand how light waves operate, optical fibers are constructed, and optical communications systems are composed.

Thyagarajan and Ghatak discuss in detail the important areas of loss and dispersion, their impact, and necessary means of avoidance. They also explain nonlinear effects in optical fibers, and present various types of light sources and amplifiers. Finally, there is an overview of optical fiber sensors, as an example of the interesting, fast-developing application of fiber optics. The 14 chapters are preceded by a list of units and abbreviations, supplemented by a list of references, and completed with an index.

The book offers a number of examples, diagrams, and everyday comparisons. A number of equations are presented, although the authors strive not to burden the reader with too much mathematical material. Due to its complexity, the book should first be read cover to cover; only then would it serve as a useful reference in the future.

Given my background, I missed some details linking the essentials to the modern communications networks, such as the thorough explanation of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), dark fiber deployment, and the basics of the synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) optical networks. While I appreciated the list of abbreviations presented up-front, I found it, unfortunately, incomplete. Most of all, I missed a glossary that would make the book a true survival guide for engineering professionals, technical managers, and students.