Iranian Journal of Engineering Education

Optical communications: future prospects, role and importance of education in electrical engineering

Document Type : Scientific - Research

Author

Mahmoud Farhang

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Information Technology, Shiraz University

https://doi.org/10.22047/ijee.2017.57625.1395
Abstract
Optical communications has resulted in remarkable breakthroughs in communications systems in the last two decades, such that the current communications world could not be imagined without the backbone optical fiber networks. Also, in the access network, optical fibers have replaced the copper wires in many developed countries.
Moreover, emerging technologies such as optical wireless and visible light communications, smart optical networks, and all-optical processing underline the role of this branch of communications engineering in the upcoming years. However, optical communications does not have a considerable proportion in the electrical engineering education in our country. This will prevent domestic development and implementation of the above-mentioned technologies and will make the country dependent to the foreign sources for any related services in this field. In this paper, a scheme is proposed for the training of the fundamentals of optical communications at both undergraduate and graduate levels in electrical engineering. This would provide a background of the principles and develop basic expertise in the engineers to deal with current and future technologies in optical communications.

Keywords

optical communications
electrical engineering
communication engineering
Education
Curriculum
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Saleh, B. E. and Teich, M. C. (2009). Fundamentals of photonics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience.
Hecht, E. (2017). Optics. Boston: Pearson.
Keiser, G. (2011). Optical fiber communication: Mc-Graw Hill.
Mynbaev, D. K. and Scheiner, L. (2001). Fiber-optic communication technology:  Pearson.
Ghassemlooy, Z. (2017). Optical wireless communications: System and channel modeling with Matlab. London: CRC Press.
 
 
Iranian Journal of Engineering Education
Volume 19, Issue 74
Summer 2017
Pages 23-31

  • Receive Date 13 July 2016
  • Revise Date 08 April 2017
  • Accept Date 09 April 2017
  • First Publish Date 23 August 2017
  • Publish Date 23 August 2017

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