Optical communications networks are an essential part of the world wide te- communication infrastructure . The number of users of present and future telecommunication services like Internet, web browsing and tele-education is expected to increase dramatically . As a consequence there is an imminent - mand for high broadband and high capacity communication systems. A prom- ing solution is found in the concept of all-optical networks . These networks exploit the vast capacity of the optical fiber by using multiplexing techniques that allow for an overall capacity of terabits per second....