In the last decade the processing of polygonal meshes has
emerged as an active and very productive research area. This
can basically be attributed to two developments:
Modern geometry acquisition devices, like laser scanners
and MRT, easily produce raw polygonal meshes of
ever growing complexity
Downstream applications like analysis tools (medical
imaging), computer aided manufacturing, or numerical
simulations all require high quality polygonal meshes
as input.
The need to bridge the gap between raw triangle soup data
and high-quality polygon meshes has driven the research on
ecient data structures and algorithms that directly operate
on polygonal meshes rather than on a (most often not
feasible) intermediate CAD representation.
The CommScope InstaPATCH? 360 and ReadyPATCH? solutions utilize a
standards-compliant multi-fiber connector to provide high density termination
capability. The connector is called an MPO (Multi-fiber Push On) connector by
the standards. In many cases, multi-fiber connector products are referred to as
MTP connectors. This document is intended to clarify the difference between the two terms – MPO and MTP.
This book gives a comprehensive overview of the technologies for the advances of
mobile radio access networks. The topics covered include linear transmitters,
superconducting filters and cryogenic radio frequency (RF) front head, radio over
fiber, software radio base stations, mobile terminal positioning, high speed
downlink packet access (HSDPA), multiple antenna systems such as smart
antennas and multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) systems, orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, IP-based radio access networks
(RAN), autonomic networks, and ubiquitous networks.
At present, there is a strong worldwide push toward bringing fiber closer to indi-
vidual homes and businesses. Fiber-to-the-Home/Business (FTTH/B) or close to it
networks are poised to become the next major success story for optical fiber com-
munications. In fact, FTTH connections are currently experiencing double-digit or
even higher growth rates, e.g., in the United States the annual growth rate was 112%
between September 2006 and September 2007, and their presence can add value of
U.S. $4,000–15,000 to the selling price of a home.
It is commonly accepted today that optical fiber communications have revolutionized
telecommunications. Indeed, dramatic changes have been induced in the way we interact
with our relatives, friends, and colleagues: we retrieve information, we entertain and
educate ourselves, we buy and sell, we organize our activities, and so on, in a long list
of activities. Optical fiber systems initially allowed for a significant curb in the cost of
transmission and later on they sparked the process of a major rethinking regarding some,
generation-old, telecommunication concepts like the (OSI)-layer definition, the lack of
cross-layer dependency, the oversegmentation and overfragmentation of telecommunica-
tions networks, and so on.
The field of digital communication has evolved rapidly in the past few
decades, with commercial applications proliferating in wireline communi-
cation networks (e.g., digital subscriber loop, cable, fiber optics), wireless
communication (e.g., cell phones and wireless local area networks), and stor-
age media (e.g., compact discs, hard drives). The typical undergraduate and
graduate student is drawn to the field because of these applications, but is
often intimidated by the mathematical background necessary to understand
communication theory.
An optical fiber amplifier is a key component for enabling efficient transmission of
wavelength-divisionmultiplexed(WDM)signalsoverlongdistances.Eventhough
many alternative technologies were available, erbium-doped fiber amplifiers won
theraceduringtheearly1990sandbecameastandardcomponentforlong-haulopti-
caltelecommunicationssystems.However,owingtotherecentsuccessinproducing
low-cost, high-power, semiconductor lasers operating near 1450 nm, the Raman
amplifiertechnologyhasalsogainedprominenceinthedeploymentofmodernlight-
wavesystems.Moreover,becauseofthepushforintegratedoptoelectroniccircuits,
semiconductor optical amplifiers, rare-earth-doped planar waveguide amplifiers,
and silicon optical amplifiers are also gaining much interest these days.
The roots of this book were planted about a decade ago. At that time, I became
increasingly convinced that wide-area and metropolitan-area networks, where much
of my group’s research has been centered at that time, were in good shape. Although
research in these fields was (and still is) needed, that’s not where the networking
bottleneck seemed to be. Rather, the bottleneck was (and still is in many places) in
the access networks, which choked users’ access to information and services. It was
clear to me that the long-term solution to that problem has to involve optical fiber
access networks.