A comprehensive and well-documented work, this book is one of a small number that cover connectivity issues for modern data centers. Most of the figures and charts are printed in color and there are hundreds of references and multiple quick lookup lists for figures, tables and an index of terms. Despite the title implying fairly high-level coverage, the book includes chapters with a wide range of topics, from the device physics and device details (lasers and modulators), all the way to network architecture and several modulation formats.
An excellent reference for researchers and graduate students, the book might not be a good choice as a textbook, due to its comprehensive nature, which is difficult to cover within a single semester, and due to the lack of application problems. Two small concerns are that many of the references are from the 1990s —although many others extend all the way to the mid-2010s—and that a small number of the figures include text and details in a small font size that are difficult to see.
Review by Bogdan Hoanca, a professor of management information systems at the University of Alaska Anchorage, USA.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.