nate the telecommunications market as far as one can see. As for multimode and single-mode fibers, the trend is to use single-mode fiber because it is future proof for bandwidth and its cost is low because it is manufactured in large volume. However, multimode fiber will keep a part of the market because of its special properties. There was a time (late 1970s to late 1990s) when multimode fibers were considered obsolete on the grounds that operation in the fundamental waveguide mode provides better dispersion performance. However, it subsequently became apparent that there will be a huge market for optical LANs, data communications networks, and access networks. Multi- mode fibers offer greater lease of handling and splicing and therefore their role is being reevaluated, especially for cost-sensitive, short-span applications. References Agrawal, G. ] P. (2001) Nonlinear Fiber Optics, Third Edition, Academic Press. Agrawal, G. P. (2005) Lightwave Technology, Telecommunications Systems, Wiley-Interscience. Buck, J. A. (2004) Fundamentals of Optical Fibers, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons. Chigusa, Y., et al. (2005) Low-Loss Pure-Silica-Core Fibers and Their Possible Impact on Trans- mission Systems, IEEE J. Lightw. Technol. 23:3541-3450. Chraplyvy, A. R., et al. (1984) Optical Power Limits in Multi-Channel Wavelength Division Multiplexing, Electron. Lett. 20:58-59. Epworth, R. E. (1978) The phenomenon of modal noise in analogue and digital optical fibre systems, Proceedings 4th European Conference on Optical Communications, 492-501. Hecht, J. (1999) City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, Oxford University Press. Kao, K. C., and Hockman, G. A. (1966) Dielectric Fibre Surface Waveguides for Optical Frequencies, Proceedings IEE 113(July):1151-1158. Miya, T., Teramuna, Y., Hosaka, Y., and Miyashita, T. (1979) Ultra Low Loss Single Mode Fibre at 1.55 um, Electron. Lett. 15:106-108. Ramaswami, R., and Sivarajan, K. (2002) Optical Networks-A Practical Perspective, Second Edition, Morgan Kaufmann. Senior, J. M. (1992)