This paper briefly des■ribes the worldwide trends of optical fiber communications research

emphasizing on the impor■ant applied research work and the obvious shift of the research topics. After enumerating an outline of general trends

it describes the technological progress in optical fiber

optoelectronic devices

coherent systems

m u 1ticarrier systems

public digi■al ne■work

and private local area network. ■ poin■s out the importance of OEIC

OFDM

sonet and FDD■. ■ will serve as referen■e for the research workers in this field.