This book is addressed to engineering professionals, researchers and R&D designers, as well as to electrical engineering graduate and PhD students, as a compendium of topics concerning advanced optical fiber transmission systems and components relying on coherent optical technologies. It has been written using original material. From the very beginning, my principal aim has been to provide an engineering reference, with numerous applications and simulations, to the state of the art in terabit optical fiber transmission.

The subject is vast and cannot be covered in a single book. I have attempted to include the most important topics, spanning optical signal theory, complex modulation formats, non-linear optics, light amplification, optical modulation and detection, and the integrated intradyne coherent optical photoreceiver for detection of high-order optical modulation formats relying on orthogonal polarizations. I assume that the reader is familiar with the background principles of optical signals, light amplification and noise, but I have added and reviewed many arguments concerning these fundamental physical quantities.