Now reissued by Cambridge University Press, the updated second edition of this definitive textbook provides an unrivaled introduction to the theoretical and practical fundamentals of wireless communications. Key technical concepts are developed from first principles, and demonstrated to students using over 50 carefully curated worked examples. Over 200 end-of-chapter problems, based on real-world industry scenarios, help cement student understanding. The book provides a thorough coverage of foundational wireless technologies, including wireless local area networks (WLAN), 3G systems, and Bluetooth along with refreshed summaries of recent cellular standards leading to 4G and 5G, insights into the new areas of mobile satellite communications and fixed wireless access, and extra homework problems. Supported online by a solutions manual and lecture slides for instructors, this is the ideal foundation for senior undergraduate and graduate courses in wireless communications.
I have read the South Asian edition. Explanation on multiple access technologies could come before chapters on cellular network. That is why it remained highly unclear what the first part of the course was trying to deliver. Moreover, confronted with many an unacceptable and callous error which I did not see in its international version. The congested citation style e.g. [Cou93] is much unreadable. I don't know who proposed this style. It has largely been an obsolete practice in electrical and electronics engineering literature very logically.
Review of the first edition. This book is a standard in the field. While the first edition is pretty 'old', it is every bit as applicable today. While I'm sure newer editions closes any gap and fixing minor editing errors, it still contains a complete collection of foundation principles needed to understand these complex systems. It covers nearly all of the processes in good detail for a 2000 or 3000 or level communication engineering undergraduate course. For example, the handoff is covered in several paragraphs introducing what the process is, how it fits into the larger architecture, but doesn't explain exactly how it happens at the architecture level. That is not a fault, though, just an example as to the scope of the book. In some ways, this actually details GSM processes, CDMA, or radio wave propagation better than many books specifically written for specific topics.
I tend to rate 3 to 5 stars as I don’t bother with books that aren’t acceptable to the subject. 3 stars means it is a good book, but there are better treatments of the subject matter or contains structural problems in the text. 4 stars means the book is great and I use it regularly in projects/research. 5 stars is reserved for top 10-20% on a given shelf that abstracted a particularly difficult idea in an easy to understand manner (i.e. it blew my mind) or I have a hard time completing my work without it.