l the analyzed systems, inspired by real products and product-level prototypes, to make clear potentialities and limitations of every technology. Whenever possible, measured data are sustained by mathematical modeling in order to help the reader apply the concepts to his or her own case. The result of this effort is a book that will help both professionals and advanced students have a global picture of the telecommunication network in order to be able to make the right choices and to always remain updated. Author Eugenio Iannone received his university degree (old Italian Laurea) in electronic engineering from Facoltà di Ingegneria, Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. He is an executive con- sultant working mainly for medium and small companies to drive key innovation processes or to transfer technologies born in research institutes and universities to the industrial environment. Iannone has 15 years of experience in the telecommunica- tion industry and has held several managerial positions. He started his career at Fondazione Ugo Bordoni in Rome as a researcher in the areas of optical transmission systems and optical networks. He then joined Pirelli Optical Systems in 1997 as a member of the network optical design team in the R&D department. In 2000, Iannone moved to Cisco's DWDM business when Pirelli Optical Systems was acquired by Cisco. He worked as a manager of the network dimensioning group within the marketing and product management department. Since 2002, Iannone has been a senior vice president of application engineering at Pirelli Labs OI, the Pirelli research and design center for telecommunications, and strategy and marketing director at PGT Photonics, the Pirelli company devoted to telecommunication components and subsystems business. During the course of his career, Iannone has authored more than 100 papers and sev- eral international patents on optical transmission, optical switching, and the architecture of optical networks. In addition, he has published two books for John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Coh