  This contribution presents a novel Windowed Green Function (WGF) method for
the solution of problems of wave propagation, scattering and radiation for
structures which include open (dielectric) waveguides, waveguide junctions, as
well as launching and/or termination sites and other nonuniformities. Based on
use of a "slow-rise" smooth-windowing technique in conjunction with free-space
Green functions and associated integral representations, the proposed approach
produces numerical solutions with errors that decrease faster than any negative
power of the window size. The proposed methodology bypasses some of the most
significant challenges associated with waveguide simulation. In particular the
WGF approach handles spatially-infinite dielectric waveguide structures without
recourse to absorbing boundary conditions, it facilitates proper treatment of
complex geometries, and it seamlessly incorporates the open-waveguide character
and associated radiation conditions inherent in the problem under
consideration. The overall WGF approach is demonstrated in this paper by means
of a variety of numerical results for two-dimensional open-waveguide
termination, launching and junction problems.
