Telecommunications applications of integrated optics and optoelectronics

Integrated optics and optoelectronics will play key roles in the evolution of the telecommunications network. We briefly review the available and developing technologies for integrated optical and optoelectronic devices, and summarize their characteristics and their natural areas of application in telecommunications. We then describe the trends and developments in fiber communication systems, services, and architectures, and how they can benefit from these devices. Major areas in which these devices are expected to contribute are: lowering the costs of high-speed network termination equipment to aid in providing inexpensive wide-band services to the subscriber; increasing the fraction of the fiber's natural bandwidth that can be made available for network usage; and increasing the network flexibility to facilitate multiservice integration.