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Summary: A good book for starters
Review: A very good starting point. Allows you space to build on what you read.
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Summary: Good, not great, book for the non-Engineer
Review: As someone who works in the financial field that had to get up to speed on fiber optics, I purchased this book, "Introduction to Fiber Optics" by Crisp, and "Fiber Optic Reference Guide" by Goff. This was definitely the most technically oriented of the three, but it did have good detail for the areas where the other two books weren't thorough enough. This text is definitely more for targeted research as a reference book, and not what you should get if you want to sit down and read up on the subject.There were a lot of areas where the added depth provided by this book were helpful, but it certainly has the feel of a book more oriented towards academia and professional engineers.
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great, book for the non-Engineer
Review: As someone who works in the financial field that had to get up to speed on fiber optics, I purchased this book, "Introduction to Fiber Optics" by Crisp, and "Fiber Optic Reference Guide" by Goff. This was definitely the most technically oriented of the three, but it did have good detail for the areas where the other two books weren't thorough enough. This text is definitely more for targeted research as a reference book, and not what you should get if you want to sit down and read up on the subject. There were a lot of areas where the added depth provided by this book were helpful, but it certainly has the feel of a book more oriented towards academia and professional engineers.
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Summary: Is C.H.L really Jeff Hecht?
Review: C.H.L.'s attempt to justify Hecht's misinformation is a bit weak 1. The G.711 recommendation is probably 30+ years old and the US telephone companies have adhered to it since ratification. In fact, G.711 simply confirmed what the US and European companies were already doing so the US telephone companies were using 64Kbps for voice even before G.711. 2. Packet switching has nothing (or very little) to do with voice. Voice is carried via circuit switched channels. 3. When voice is carried via a digital channel in the US (at 64Kbps, I might add), one form of signaling "steals" the low order bit of an 8 bit voice sample of each sixth sample of the 24 channels on a DS-1 (AKA T-1) circuit. Because of this, a data channel carried over one of these 64Kbps channels is only able to provide 56Kbps. Maybe this is where Hecht went wrong. But don't buy or not buy Hecht's book based on this one error (in the big scheme of things it's fairly small). The real problem with the book is that it just doesn't do a jood job of explaining optical communications. A better defense of Hecht's book might be that Hecht was attempting to write about all of the uses of optical fiber and not just communications.
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Summary: Cisco Optical Instructor
Review: GREAT BOOK! Used a lot of the principles in my lectures.
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Summary: Cisco Optical Instructor
Review: GREAT BOOK! Used a lot of the principles in my lectures.
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Summary: Wow! Just what I needed!
Review: hi guys! You really want a juicy piece of the Fiber Optic world? well this is the book you were craving for... This is an outstanding book that guides you through the basic, fundamental and still practical knowledge of Fiber Optics... I highly recommend this book if you are to implement fiber optic systems... this book shows us when, how and why we must implement fiber... nice job Jeff!
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Summary: Possible explaination for the previous review(Dec. 26, 2000)
Review: I personally don't have a rating to this book, however the system is asking me to rate this book with stars or I couldn't post, so I put a 4-star to cope with the current general rating. As for the possible mistake mentioned in the previous review (December 26, 2000), I think I might have an explaination for the misunderstanding. Jeff Hecht says that voice is coded in the telephone network with 7 bit samples to give a 56 kbps data stream. The fact is that this is what happens in the US because when the Bell system first installed those packet switching nodes for the packet switched networks around the US. They adopted 56 Kbps clear channels for interconnections, prior to the standard protocol being set up by the international standards bodies. When the international standard called SS7 was finally completed, AT&T adopted it; however, the legacy of 56 Kbps clear channels remains in the US. So this is what happened in the US, while the rest of the world is using 64 Kbps clear channels. FYI.
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Summary: About Understanding Fiber Optics
Review: I wrote Understanding Fiber Optics at an introductory level, taking care to explain basic concepts in fiber optics and telecommunications. I've followed fiber-optic technology for over 20 years, and my goal is to help readers understand this fascinating technology. I wrote the first edition for self-study. It's now used in corporate training programs and college courses for technicians. It won't tell you everything you need to know to design the latest and greatest fiber-optic communication systems, but it will help you understand how those systems work.
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Summary: The perfect first read in fibre optic communications!
Review: I'll be entering the master's program in electrical engineering at Stanford in the fall in fiber optic communications and I'm so glad that I read this book before hand. This book has to be one of the easiest technical (although nontheoretical/nonmathematical) reads. It helped me understand fundamental concepts without getting bogged down in mathematical derivations. Hecht presents the material in a very easy to understand manner. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about fiber optics. Now, after having read this book I'm confident to tackle more advanced texts in fiber optic communications.
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