title: Implications of information theory in optical fibre communications.
abstract: Recent decades have witnessed steady improvements in our ability to harness the information-carrying capability of optical fibres. Will this process continue, or will progress eventually stall? Information theory predicts that all channels have a limited capacity depending on the available transmission resources, and thus it is inevitable that the pace of improvements will slow. However, information theory also provides insights into how transmission resources should, in principle, best be exploited, and thus may serve as a guide for where to look for better ways to squeeze more out of a precious resource. This tutorial paper reviews the basic concepts of information theory and their application in fibre-optic communications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden Optical Networks Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK agrell@chalmers.se.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0685-451X
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Agrell
authors.affiliation: Optical Networks Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2172-3051
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvarado
authors.affiliation: Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G4.
authors.forename: Frank R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4274-1785
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Kschischang
keywords: Shannon theory; channel capacity; information theory; mutual information; optical communications