he area of communications and networking covers all technologies used in the generation, storage and transfer of information. There are countless applications of this technology, ranging from very short-range communication between two points as in inter-chip communication on a circuit board, to very long-range communication within a network of many devices of various forms as in communication via the Internet between a server in one part of the world and a user twelve time zones away. Even longer range communication is seen in the links between spacecraft and the Earth that carry images, videos and data from other planets. Each application brings a unique set of technical challenges, e.g. for inter-chip communication extremely high bit rates are required but transmitters and receivers have to be very rudimentary, while for voice traffic over the Internet bit rates are not too high but delay must be tightly managed.