Abstract

Since 1983 the Commission of European Communities has been active in defining future requirements and European Community action lines for the sector of telecommunications. One of the results of these activities is the program Research and Development in Advanced Communications Technologies in Europe (RACE), which is oriented toward the Community-wide introduction of integrated broadband communication (IBC) by 1995. The presentation will start with a brief outline of the various action lines and of the objectives of the first phase of the RACE program (1988-1992). The major part of the paper will be devoted to a summary of the results obtained, particularly those in the domain of optical communication. The overall results will be compared with the original objectives, and some conclusions with respect to the second phase of RACE and other, related European Community programs will be drawn.

© 1993 Optical Society of America