(Continued fiom page 20) tion. Starting with an overview, this part describes ISDN interfaces and functions, ISDN physical layer, ISDN data link layer, ISDN network layer, ISDN services, and Signaling System No. 7. Part I11 contains two chapters on frame relay. Frame relay was developed as an alternative to X.25 and provides a streamlined packet-switching interface and mechanism. The first chapter of
this part describes the call control and the data transfer protocol. The second chapter discusses the congestion control mechanism. As a result of the lack of flow and the error control mechanisms in t h e frame relay protocol, various methods have been suggested in ITU-T and ANSI standards for congestion control. These include discard strategy, explicit congestion notification, and implicit congestion control. Broadband ISDN standards ar
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described in Part IV, which also contains two chapters. The first chapter gives many inspirational application examples for broadband ISDN. An overview of the architecture and protocols of B-ISDN is given in the second chapter. Both the SONET frame format and the pointer adjustment mechanisms are discussed. P a r t V, which also includes two chapters, covers asynchronous transfer mode. The first chapter gives a highlevel overview of the ATM standard: the physical layer, the ATM layer, and the ATM adaptation layer (AAL). The second chapter, which is also the last chapter of this book, discusses traffic and congestion control in an ATM network. Unfortunately, the limited length of these two chapters prevents either of them from going into a more detailed discussion of various intriguing aspects of AAL 5 and the congestion control mechanisms for available bit rate (ABR) traffic. Those readers who are interested in acquiring more knowledge in ATM should consult Asynchronous Transfer Mode: Solution for Broadband ISDN by Martin De Prycker. In summary, this book provides a fairly up-to-date tutorial in ISDN and broadband ISDN. While many other books might give a more in-depth discussion on any of the subjects, including f r a m e relay, B-ISDN, or ATM, this book is nevertheless the most authoritative textbook in this area.
Fundamentals of Multiaccess Optical Fiber Networks Denis J. G. Mestdagh, Artech House, 388 pages, 1995, ISBN 0-89006-666-3
REVIEWER: CHUNG-SHENG LI Multiaccess optical networks have enjoyed a lot of attention recently due to the strong demand for next-generation optical networks at data rates exceeding 622 MbJs. The advances in the transmitter and receiver technologies, as well as t h e matured optical amplifier technology, certainly enable the development of several multiaccess optical fiber network testbeds around the world. This book is thus a welcome entry to this fast-developing field. It is written as a textbook for beginning graduate students and for scientists who are interested in entering this field. Not much prior knowledge of optoelectronics is needed in order to comprehend (Continued on page 24)
IEEE CommunicationsMagazine June 1996
BOOK REVIEWS
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(Continued from page 22) this book. Readers can skip the first part of the book and go directly to Chapter 6 if they are already familiar with optoelectronics technology and just want to learn about recent developments in architectures and protocols for optical networks. After an overview of the entire book, the rest is divided into two parts. The first part, comprising four chapters, provides the background materials of various technology aspects of multiaccess networks. Chapter 2 discusses the basics of semiconductor light sources, including light emitting diodes, Fabry-Perot laser diodes, distributed feedback laser diodes, and wavelength-tunable laser diodes. Relevant characteristics for multiaccess optical fiber networks such as modulation bandwidth, linearity, and output optical spectrum are discussed for each individual device. Several interesting wavelength-tunable laser diodes such as two- and three-section DBR laser diodes, external cavity tunable laser diodes, and MAGIC (which is grating-based single-output wavelengthselectable) are described. The basic mathematics needed for understanding light propagation in optical fibers are described in Chapter 3. In addition to attenuation and dispersion characteristics, the discussion also gives proper attention to nonlinear effects which can introduce crosstalks and severely constrain the performance in multiaccess networks.
1
Chapter 4 describes various light detection techniques. The performance of direct detection receivers are compared against receivers using coherent detection. It seems that receivers based on coherent detection have already fallen out of favor due to its sensitivity to laser phase noise and complicated receiver structures. Therefore, it is a little puzzling that this book has devoted almost 20 pages to this subject. Optical amplifiers, and Erbiumdoped fiber amplifiers in particular, are probably o n e of the most important achievements in photonics engineering during the past few years. There is no doubt that it is justifiable to devote the entire Chapter 5 to this important subject. Currently, amplifiers have already migrated out of their research status and become operational at an extremely fast pace. Their use can be divided into three categories: (1) Power amplifier, as a booster for laser output (2) In-line amplifier, which boosts the signal periodically (3) Preamplifers, which enhance receiver sensitivity Unfortunately , the EDFA receives too little attention in this chapter as compared to the semiconductor amplifiers. The second part of this book deals with multiaccess network architectures and performance. Chapter 6 is devoted to passive optical devices such as star couplers, wavelength multiplexers, wavelength demultiplexers, and optical isolators. This chapter also describes
several popular network topologies bus, star, and wavelength-routed networks. The optimal amplifier placement problem for bus topology is also discussed. Wavelength division multiple access technique is discussed in Chapter 7. The discussion is divided into singlehop and wavelength-routed networks. For single-hop broadcast-and-select networks, either the transmitter is tunable, the receiver is tunable, or both. Several tunable receiver devices are also described: Fabry-Perot tunable filters, Mach-Zender tunable filters, electro-optic tunable filters, acousto-optic tunable filters, semiconductor tunable filters, Fiber-Brilouin tunable filters, and multiwavelength switched receivers. In my opinion, these discussions should belong in Part I, just like the tunable transmitter devices. The network design and performance issues, such as the crosstalk due to both linear and nonlinear mechanisms, a r e also discussed. This chapter concludes with a brief introduction of several optical network examples based on WDMA. Chapters 8 to 10 describe other multiple access techniques, including subcarrier multiple access (SCMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA). For completeness, there is no doubt that these multiaccess techniques should be treated in this book. However, the emphasis should have been on WDMA because it is the most actively researched area right now. Overall, this book is nicely written, although the organization of the chapters leaves something to be desired. Those readers who are interested in learning more about optical networks should also consult Fiber Optical Network by Paul E. Green, Jr. (Prentice Hall), which gives a more comprehensive treatment of the same subjects covered by this book.
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IEEE CommunicationsMagazine June 1996
