ers has developed a technique that can quadruple the amount of information that can be carried on single fiber optic cable. THE FUTURE IS FIBER-OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES With the use of a process called spatial domain multiplexing, designed by Syed Murshid, an associate professor of engineering, Barry Grossman, a professor of electrical engineering, and doctoral graduate assistant Puntada Narakorn, one fiber optic cable can transmit multiple pieces of information at the same wavelength without interference, thus significantly increasing the effective information-carrying capacity of the cable. "In this process, we are able to transmit information from multiple sources at the same frequency with high reliability and high accuracy," Murshid says. "In effect, we quadruple the information-carrying capacity at a very low cost. The technology could be the biggest fiber optic communication breakthrough since the development of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), a technique that uses multiple lasers to transmit several wavelengths of light simultaneously over a single optical fiber. "The information signal carried through fiber optics is a beam of light, much like that projected on the wall," notes Murshid. "In order to prevent a loss of signal over great distances, the glass used must be very clean." The glass is SO clean, in fact, that if the ocean was as pure, one could see the bottom from the surface. With spatial domain multiplexing, the information-carrying light pulses are transported through the fiber optic cable as concentric circles, giving the pattern the appearance of a target. "The future of fiber optics is right on target," he notes. Ron Bailey, dean of Florida Tech's college of engineering, says Murshid's discovery can potentially transform the telecommunications industry. "By increasing the capacity of a single optical fiber, Dr. Murshid's process has eliminated the need for additional cables," says Bailey. "Up until now, if a telecommunications company needed more capacity, it was forced to underg