ABSTRACT
The significant growth of data traffic in the past two decades, mainly driven by Internet-based services, has been shifting the telecommunication industry from the voice-centric to the data-centric world. The new next-generation Internet network is taking shape. Many issues and challenges still need to be addressed before the next-generation network is to be truly set up. Many people believe the core technology to meet those challenges is the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, considering its huge bandwidth capacity: a single mode fiber’s potential bandwidth can reach up to 50 Tb/s;
low signal attenuation, low signal distortion, low power requirement, low material usage, small space requirement, and low cost.
