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The Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila Hotel is a lifesaver and an excellent choice. This 12-acre five (5)-star hotel is just the place for business travel and vacations in Manila, Philippines. If you are searching for that one place where you could spend an equal amount of time with your kids and with your work, here is the place in Manila just along Roxas Boulevard.

First is the distance from the airport. Kids hate long rides and Sofitel Philippine Plaza takes almost less than 30 minutes from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Your kids will be amazed that they are already there but by the time they arrived, and being ever energetic, they would want to get outside again.

Nobody can blame them. Surrounding the Sofitel Philippine Manila is an assortment of leisurely activities such as a visit to the animals at the Manila Zoo or at the Manila Ocean Park, or maybe going shopping at the country's largest mall, SM Mall of Asia, or better yet (if one could somehow make them) watch a play or two at the Cultural Center of the Philippines-the artistic masterpiece which showcases the country's brightest artistic talents-just a stone's throw away from the hotel. And to those who doesn't sleep that much, the Harbor View Square can offer a nice hang-out place to spend the deep night at, staring at the elegant darkness of the Manila Bay at night.

This is not to mean that your kids would not enjoy what was inside the hotel. The pay-per-view was warmly accepted, as well as the TV and the bedside radio. all 609 rooms are fitted with audible smoke alarms, dead-bolts and even a safe where she put those important documents. Bathrooms are fitted with both hot and cold showers and one could plunge herself in the large bathtub. Room service remains available 24-hours even during weekends.

If you're not satisfied with just snacks, troop to Le Bar, where they offer chocolates, pastries and an accompaniment of cultural music. You can try the grilled meats of Sunset Bar. The cozy interiors of The Spiral and my personal favorite (because of the beer) is The Sports Bar.

Arrange at Sofitel Philippine Plaza your business presentations and you could make it a reality. The hotel can fix up the rooms according to your needs, whether it would be a Theatre, a Classroom, a U-Shape or a banquet. At the Sofitel, your presentations would become art forms, just like what it has done for many of its hotel guests.

But first, when you're in Manila, you know now which Manila Hotels to book: the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila.

Manila Hotels provides excellent reviews of the hotels and accommodation available in Manila, Philippines. Check out the best offers, and also the excellent reviews of each of the available hotels at this fantastic site.

If you are looking for a more affordable Manila Hotel to spend your nights, do checkout our fabulous recommendations at Budget Manila Hotels

* What is polarization?

Light waves consist of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. These two fields are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of light traveling. We call the electric field plane as the light's polarization.

Sunlight and many other ordinary light is made of many light waves, each with their electric and magnetic fields oriented randomly. If all waves' electric fields were aligned parallel to each other, we call this light linearly polarized.

* Polarization's effect on optical fibers

Polarization does not really matter in multimode fibers but it can be crucial in single mode fibers especially for long distance and high speed rate fiber communications. Why? Let me explain it below.

Technically speaking, single mode fibers actually have two modes traveling in it. These two modes have orthogonal polarization and perfect single mode fibers cannot differentiate between them. These two modes are functionally identical and light energy can shift easily between these two polarization modes.

However, fiber's geometry is not perfect. As a result, these two modes actually travel along the fiber at slightly different speeds. The effect is called PMD (polarization mode dispersion). The slight speed difference can cause problems in high speed fiber optic links such as 10Gbit/s and 40Gbit/s.

* Polarization maintaining fibers come to the rescue!

Polarization maintaining fibers are special kinds of single mode fibers, they are also commonly called PM fibers or Panda PM fibers.

PM fibers have built-in asymmetry which is also called birefringence. The refractive index of PM fiber differs for the two polarizations and this effect prevent light energy from coupling between two polarizations.

PM fibers can transmit light in a single polarization if the input light polarization is aligned to one of its two birefringence axes. And that is why they are called polarization maintaining fibers.

* The applications of polarization maintaining fibers

PM fibers are rarely used for long distance transmission because of their expensive price and higher attenuation than single mode fiber. They are commonly used for telecommunication applications, fiber optic sensing and interferometry.

Colin Yao is the sales manager at Fiber Optics For Sale Co. and an expert on fiber optic technologies and products. Learn even more about polarization maintaining fibers, PM fiber and Panda PM fiber on Fiber Optics For Sale Co. web site.