Undersea Fiber Communication Systems, Third edition is a reference guide covering all aspects of optical communication systems over submarine cables, including design, technology, installation, and maintenance, for both the wet and dry plant. For more than 20 years, the book has served as the bible for the submarine optical communications industry, proving useful for all people interested in submarine cables, from students, to experts, operators, and investors. Since the publication of the second edition of the book in 2015, several technical areas have rapidly evolved, and this new third edition keeps the book up to date in this fast-moving field.

The key technical areas impacted over the past decade and addressed in this volume include: Transverse role of open cables, from architectures and design to upgrades and management; Evolution of coherent transponders now fully versatile with hundreds of possible modes of operation; Impacts of space division multiplexing (SDM) with the foreseen evolution towards full multi-core fiber solutions in the next decade; Deep evolution of wet plant equipment (repeaters, branching units, cables) supporting SDM and reconfiguration of networks; Environmental impacts of marine operations from laying to cable recovery, leading also to many new developments of SMART cables; Contract management for laying open cables as well as for recovery of end-of-life cables; Unrepeatered systems that have progressed to match repeatered systems at network levels.

• Offers unparalleled, complete, and detailed coverage of optical submarine telecommunication systems, including coverage of components, fiber, cable, subsystems, and networks, as well as their operational aspects including deployment, repair, and cable recovery, and related contractual issues
• Addresses the most recent developments in this fast-moving field, including fiber sensing and environmental applications, cable space division multiplexing (SDM), and open cable concepts
• Tackles the evolution of submarine networks into interoperable open cables, terminals, and SDM systems
• Gives a self-contained overview of specific technologies, covering both the state-of-the-art and future research and operational challenges
• Features contributions from recognized experts from academia and industry