Offering a wealth of practical information on the implementation realities of wireless communications, this book also contains up-to-date information on the major wireless communication standards from around the world. Covers every fundamental aspect of wireless communications, from cellular system design to networking, plus the world-wide standards.
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.