Capacity limits capacity limits of fiber fiber-optic communication systems

• Shannon's information theory allows to determine an asymptote of the channel information rate for a signal impaired by additive white Gaussian noise • Determining the limiting information rate in point-topoint fiber transmission in optically-routed network can allow to set limits on optical network capacity • Achieving capacity requires an array of advanced technologies • Many important open issues remain to be addressed to solve the problem of maximizing fiber capacity in optical networks!