Book excerpt: Introduction to Fiber-Optic Communications provides students with the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of modern optical fiber communications and applications, striking a fine balance between theory and practice that avoids excessive mathematics and derivations. Unlike other textbooks currently available, this book covers all of the important recent technologies and developments in the field, including electro-optic modulators, coherent optical systems, and silicon integrated photonic circuits. Filled with practical, relevant worked examples and exercise problems, the book presents complete coverage of the topics that optical and communications engineering students need to be successful. From principles of optical and optoelectronic components, to optical transmission system design, and from conventional optical fiber links, to more useful optical communication systems with advanced modulation formats and high-speed DSP, this book covers the necessities on the topic, even including today's important application areas of passive optical networks, datacenters and optical interconnections.