Book excerpt: Optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) communication network technology will play an important role in future optical networks, such as optical access and metropolitan area networks. OCDMA technology can also be applied to implement optical signal multiplexing and label switching on backbone networks. Optical Code Division Multiple Access Communication Networks - Theory and Applications introduces the code theory of OCDMA, the methods and technologies of OCDMA encoding and decoding, the theory and methods of analyzing OCDMA systems with various receiver models and realizing multiple-class services with different bit rates and QoS. In addition, OCDMA network architectures, protocols and applications are discussed in detail. The up-to-date theoretical and experimental results on OCDMA systems and networks are also reported. A large number of encoding/decoding examples and many analysis and simulation results of code and system performances are given. It is a valuable text and/or reference book for postgraduates majoring in telecommunication and photonics to obtain a well-knit theoretical foundation and for engineers in R&D and management of optical communications. Dr. Yin is an Associate Professor of the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science at Peking University, China, and was a Visiting Research Fellow of Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at University of Southampton, UK. Dr. Richardson is a Professor for optical communications and Deputy Director of ORC at University of Southampton, UK, and is responsible for much of the ORC's fiber related activities.