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Telecommunications Essentials, Second Edition: The Complete Global Source (2nd Edition)
vBulletin Book Store > vBulletin books beginning with T
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Telecommunications Essentials, Second Edition: The Complete Global Source (2nd Edition) |
Author: Lillian Goleniewski
Published: 2006-10-20 |
List price: $54.99
Our price: $39.17
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Usually ships in 24 hours
As of: October 11th, 2008 09:12:36 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 The book I was looking for
I wanted a book with all the network technologies, such WiMAX, FTTH and NGNs. This book contains all this information.
 It is what it says it is
As an electronic engineer and graduate student, I found the book to be very comprehensive in discussing various emerging and present telecommunication technologies. The book would describe quite accurately the technology without bogging you down with unnecessary details. It manages to be brief while still providing valuable data for the telecommunications professional, and broad enough to cover a wide spectrum (no pun intended) of material. And most importantly, it isn't a bore to read.
I recommend this to anyone seeking a basic to intermediate knowledge of a broad array of telecommunciations concepts and applications.
The Best and Most Readable Book on Telecom
I have to hand it to the authors, Lillian Goleniewski and Kitty Jarrett, for producing hands-down the most readable and comprehensive book out there on Telecom. I have had to slog through some of the worst writing to study this subject, and it was a breath of fresh air to crack this one open and start reading.
The authors cover every aspect of the field in great depth, and in such clear language that both the expert and the novice can benefit from this book. This will be required reading for all of my students, and I highly recommend other professors in the Telecom field to follow suit.
Well done!
Balanced explanation on telecomm technology and industry (business) trends
Firstly, I am a strong fan of Ms. Lili. I have personally met the author during a 3-day seminar during my PETRONAS days back in 1994. At that time, I was attending what the best telecomm training course the market can offer as well worth its price.
WHY WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND TELECOMM PROPERLY:
Compared to other training courses, Ms Lili was about 2x-3x times more expensive but what is that to an oil-and-gas company where network downtime to a gas-compressing subsidiary can cost around RM100,000 an hour (1994 exchange of RM2.50@US$1) equivalent to US$40,000.
At that time, IT Support has to figure out how to support a heterogeneous mix of one IBM 3745 mainframe, few UNIX boxes, tens of Novell 2.x servers. Several network protocols ran inside the various pipes/lines such as SNA, TCP-IP and MS Netbeui, and my pet project OS/2 NetBIOS, and Novell SPX. Most network segments are on Ethernet, and a couple are on Token-Ring.
Needless to say, troubleshooting network traffic particularly eliminating "jabbers chipping echoes etc" was to put it mildly a "challenge." One of the fire-fighting effort required bringing in a US consultant with a pony-tail using Data-General "Sniffer" equipment!
For IT Support to figure out how to support the big project at that time, mainly getting SAP gateways remaining up, we need to understand what it was we were having, as well as understand how the newer telecomm technologies are going to do to the overall picture.
At that time, we have the whole possible mix of telecomm devices such fixed leased lines, dial-up backup, and few sprinklings of VSAT and wireless. Of course you cannot learn all that in a 3-day class. And I don't think I learn that at school too. What I learned became obsolete after I graduated !
WHY WE NEED THIS BOOK:
This is where this book comes in. To provide good IT support, so that users would not pester Helpdesk folks, we need really good technical references. Of course, we need that initial mind-enlightening class to understand the "big-picture." The details you can get that free easily off the web nowadays; understand how the big picture works is will make it easier for us to understand the complex details.
WHAT THIS BOOK COVER:
Covered the whole range of Telecom technologies ranging from basic stuff such as circuits and channels to transmission type such as analog vs digital. The book then cover the traditional media such as twisted-pair, coax, fibre and telecomm devices such as microwave and satellite.
The depth of technical details amazes me to have everything in one book covering IP protocols, ports, and Quality of Service. Main trends are covered such as optical networking, broadband and wireless for both LAN, and WANs..
I really like Lily's supplementary notes on the various indicators on industry adaption of specific technologies as well as their technological history. Basically if you need to know something on Telecomms, there will be some pages on that topic here. .
COMPARED TO 1sT EDITION:
Compared to the 1st edition, this is thicker by a double! We have a whopping 865 pages, although still much less than Yellow Pages
In the 2nd edition, I realized the author has diligently tracked the technology updates which is what most people wanted.
WISH LIST FOR NEWER EDITION OR NEW BOOK ALTOGETHER:
Since I am now into management consulting for E-Government and E-Commerce, some discussion on cost structure for would be VERY ATTRACTIVE especially to decision-makers in developing countries with low phone/network penetration.
I believe if I am all powerful African president wanting to have my own mobile telecoms company, I would want to have a reference that will give some estimates on trenching cost, and base-station costs. That will surely help my nephew who is going to be the CEO of that company some idea of what sort of loan and spending that has to be incurred. Farfetched ? Well this is a wish-list!
TELECOMMS MUST BE A PART OF YOUR COMPANY IT STRATEGIC PLAN:
Overall for techies out there, recognizing important trends in the telco industry is VERY VERY important for your corporate management. Having a feel of where everybody is going is critical to their Telecommunications Infra roadmap. This is where this book come into value.
The Telecomms Infrastructure road map will determine what decisions are required for infrastructure procurement, leasing or investment. Thus, the Telecomm chapter is an important part of a company IT Strategic Plan (ISP).
Subsequently, this ISP will exist if senior management is really serious to get their brilliant and precious Business Strategic Plan up and running. Unless if the company is just SOHO with only 1-2 computers and they pass files using flash-disks! Otherwise the senior management is just talking.
 A Cost-effective Path to Basic Telecom Knowledge
The book does what it sets out to do - cover the basic underpinnings of modern telecom. Its' age (a scant three years) shows a bit here and there (some of the material obviously predating the book), but for the most part it is accurate and relevant. It is not a technical document, as 600 pages would not be enough to cover the component technology. It mentions occasionally the regulatory issues in telecom, but only in passing; its' primary focus is on business. It makes a good book for the student or someone interested in a telecom career. I might also recommend it to someone whose future plans include sitting through a telecom sales pitch or taking a meeting with telecom lobbyists (at least the part where they might drag in an engineer to talk about some cool new technology).
When I say it has a business focus, I mean that it tries to explain the pros and cons of a particular technology in terms of cost, complexity, and ability to satisfy customer needs. Applying the same criteria, I would say the author has provided a moderately costly (that is, not free), easy to understand, and given the constraints of the business focus, does so rather well.
But the book has a few flaws. Here's what I found -
p.254 - "binary form" should read "dotted decimal form" - which the author uses correctly on the following page.
p.255 - no mention of NAT (Network Address Translation) as a means of saving IPv4 address space. Like the author, I'd like to see IPv6 deployed before I'm too old to care.
p.298 - the phrase "going forward" should be extirpated before the next edition. Also appears on p.312.
p.310 - the author briefly mentions an imminent "talent dearth" as driving the next wave of technical innovation, then trots out some ITAA blurb about half the job vacancies going unfilled each year. Of course, training might also help the problem, if global business can be bothered with such trifles.
p.340 - ANX was purchased by SAIC in 1999 I think, and its' URL as published has been deprecated. On the bright side, I did see a picture of a cute puppy when I went there.
p.354 - in discussing voice chat in games, author uses Sega Dreamcast as example. Only the good die young...
p.429 - author mentions Amsterdam. Sounds like reasonable grounds for a drug test to me! Of course, there's always the excuse of visiting the Van Gogh museum...
p.459 merits a special mention as both the best and worst way to sell a wireless future. Not only will the world be at your fingertips, but it will be trying to gnaw them off. While the author sees a benevolent infrastructure where knowledge of your whereabouts and tastes will be used to respond to your needs quickly and thoroughly, I see a world where your convenience comes at the price of empowering spammers, stalkers, and government goons.
Some of the parts I really enjoyed either because of their novelty or thoughtfulness were as follows:
p.274-6 - talking about the notion of backhauling data, the author touches on a problem analogous to Net Neutrality.
The Internet primer on p.259-80 was maybe the best I've read. Sadly it was too short.
Also enjoyed the circuit-switching chapters 4 and 5.
p.331 - author makes a case for tiered Internet. I'm hopeful we can keep "best effort" Internet service at a quality level sufficient for playing Battlefield 2 for the foreseeable future.
This book is better than three stars, but not quite four. Were its' material a little fresher, it would merit four. I'll check out the website and update this review accordingly.
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