Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook

Marketing Description

If you really need to understand telecommunications, you must own a copy of Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook by Ray Horak. A well-researched and comprehensive survey of telecom and datacom technologies and services, from the most basic to the most complex, the book begins with basic concepts and definitions and marches through the full ranges of transmission media and voice, data, and video systems, networks, standards and protocols. The author sets the technologies in context, providing a good level of detail on the origin and evolution of fiber optics, cellular radio, digital carrier systems, TCP/IP, and the Internet, as examples. The emphasis is just right, with plenty of ink devoted to broadband LAN, MAN, and WAN technologies such as 3G, 802.11g/n, ADSL, BPL, CWDM and DWDM, PON, and WiMAX. The author devotes the final chapter to tracking the origins, evolution, and current status of U.S. telecom regulation through key legislative, judicial and agency events. Back matter includes a helpful list of more than 1,000 industry acronyms and initialisms and an excellent and thoroughly complete index, which is the mark of an author with an appreciation for the reader. (Information is useless if you can’t find it when you need it.) Ray Horak writes in a unique plain-English, commonsense style that makes the book an easy read for a technology book. Also, he liberally sprinkles his trademarked (or, more correctly, copyrighted) wry sense of humor throughout, so you will find yourself smiling and chuckling from time to time.

While Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook is written for a reasonably astute academic and professional readership of engineers, analysts, regulators, attorneys, and other telecom professionals, Horak develops each topic in plain English and in such a commonsense and patient manner that the book is equally informative and useful to a student or relative newcomer to telecommunications. Among the many of specific technology topics are included the following:

· T/E/J-Carrier Systems
· Fiber Optics
o MMF and SMF
o CWDM and DWDM
o EDFAs and Raman Amplification
o Passive Optical Network (PON)
o SONET/SDH
· Wireless
o 802.11a/b/g/n
o Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)
o 802.16 and WiMAX
o Bluetooth
o ZigBee
o Cellular, including 2.5G and 3G
· Broadband over Power Line (BPL)
· E-mail and Instant Messaging (IM)
· Storage Area Networks (SANs)
· Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): ADSL, HDSL, SHDSL, SDSL, and VDSL
· CATV Networks and Modems
· Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), including IP PBX and IP Centrex
· Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) vs. H.323

Published by Wiley-Interscience (September 2007)
791 pages, $99.95
ISBN-10: 0470041412
ISBN-13: 978-0470041413

The perfect companion to this book is Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary, also written by Ray Horak in 2007. It is a comprehensive telecommunications dictionary of more than 7,500 terms critical to understanding voice, data, video, and multimedia communications system and network technologies, applications, and regulation. An instant classic that contains none of the fluff found in competing works, Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary is a carefully researched and absolutely reliable source. As such, it is the one and only telecom dictionary you will need.

Amazon Review
by Ray Horak
Admittedly, this review is from a somewhat biased perspective, as I am the author. As Amazon requires a rating for every review, I’ll give myself 5 stars. Heck, it took me the best part of a year to write this book, even though I based it on 30+ years of experience in the industry and drew considerable background content from the 3 editions of my best-selling Communications Systems and Networks. Bill Flanagan, my Technical Editor, is a big part of the reason for the long gestation period. Bill has an extensive background in telecom and, as a formally trained mathematician and physicist, possesses a different perspective on the subject. Coupling all of that with his unswerving attention to technical detail, his insistence on absolute accuracy, and his experience as an author of a dozen or so books ensured that this encyclopedic piece of work is not only complete, but also correct in every detail. As we so firmly believe that this book really is something special, I have to offer some comments.

The Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook details the origin, evolution, current status, and application of every relevant technology in the contemporary telecommunications and data communications landscape. By every, I mean voice, computer, facsimile, video, and multimedia data, whether organized, transmitted, and switched or routed as a bit stream or in frames, packets, or cells over wireline or wireless networks employing electricity, radio, or optical energy, whether transmitted through the airwaves or conducted by metallic, glass, or plastic media in the LAN, MAN, or WAN domain. Further, this book discusses every major relevant protocol, modulation technique, and encryption mechanism employed in contemporary networking.

This book is targeted primarily at the professional and academic markets, but it is not a typical engineering text full of formulas. Rather, it is—as much as possible—a plain-English, commonsense treatment of a very technical subject. We think that anyone with a compelling need for a complete and accurate understanding of telecommunications can benefit from it. Whether you are a student seeking to understand the basics of telecom, an experienced engineer or other technical professional seeking detailed information on a new technology, or a regulator, manager, analyst, or other non-technical professional looking for a thoroughly understandable discussion of telecom and datacom, you will find that this book will suit your requirements.

I own hundreds of books on telecommunications and data communications, have read at least some of all of them, and have learned something from each. In many cases, I learned how not to write a book. This book is the best we could make it. That said, please contact me with your comments and any errors or omissions you might discover. With your help, I am confident that the next book will be even better.

By the way, the perfect companion to this book is Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary, also by Ray Horak (me). Bill Flanagan served as Technical Editor for both books. We made sure that each complemented the other. Your compliments (as well as your constructive criticisms) are welcome.