Our company designs optical transport systems; we have a hard time en-boarding new software people because this gap in training material...
I'm currently writing a blog post on optical modulation, it's difficult to find an approachable language.
This is an excellent overview of optical networking - one that I wish I had found years ago. As transceivers are getting cheaper, more and more industries are finding use for optical systems. Having a basic understanding of how these systems work can open up a number of creative solutions to problems that were very difficult to solve before.
The amount of throughput that fiber achieves over huge distances is incredible. It's amazing how easy it is to move 100+ gbps between two cities over a single 2-core fiber run.
Most reading material on optical transport is either elementary on one extreme or jargon-y material aimed at pro insiders.
It is refreshing to see a survey that covers so much in a clear, concise way.