Mobile Broadband - Including WiMAX and LTE 1st Edition

It's a good preliminary source, but a lot has happened since its publication. For example, there's no mention (at least I couldn't find it) of RSRP in it. It is very overpriced.

I have often purchased engineering texts in the telecom space following reader reviews. I have obtained good results when the number of reviews is high, but have been very disappointed in some cases when the number of reviews is small and the book gets high marks. I believe there are several reasons why this happens, and I will detail some. I have a feeling that some reviews come from friendly peers, already known to the author, within the spirit "I will scratch your back, and I would expect you to scratch mine". I would agree that a positive feature of the book is its well ordered structure, the succession of topics and the roadmap leading to WiMAX and LTE. I cannot say the same for the content.In the general case, editorial reviews, introductions or the back of the cover text do not clearly say to whom the book is targeted, and what is the objective of writing. Whether it is an introduction for "newbees" or a refresher for seasoned professionals. In this case, the Preface starts with "The book attempts to provide an overview of IP-OFDMA technology for the uninitiated."I should mention here that I am not disputing the author's technical competence, nor his ability to write with clarity, only the effort expended to live up to his claim in the preface, and to satisfy the reader.Mathematics is an exact science, and has a language of elegance and conciseness, which eschews ambiguity. Not every engineer though, thinks as a pure or even applied mathematician. Mathematics is a tool, a means to an end. I will not dispute that some concepts will not be thoroughly understood without a deep comprehension of the mathematical underpinnings. That being said, many authors, and this author is no exception, make a pyrotechnical display of their assumed mathematical prowess, that makes the reading of a 500 page book a daunting task, highly unpalatable. And not only they will drop mathematical formulae without going through derivations, but will use the style of mathematical texts and symbolic logic in the descriptive part of the text to give a semblance of elegance and rigor. All in all, it appears that they want to show off their expertise, without any concern for the reader, who is likely to get an "indigestion". The net effect is a lack of much touted clarity.Consider the paragraph on page 115 as an illustration of the statements above:"Orthogonality of OFDM subcarriers in frequency domain is with Dirac pulses convolved with sinc ('fT). Since in time domain a subcarrier k is multiplied with a rectangle (T), which is in frequency domain a convolution between Â(f-fk) and sinc ('fT). This is basically 1/T shifted version of sinc (f) for each fk and sinc ('fT) has zeros for all frequencies that are integer multiple of 1/T."On page 114, figure 4.8 depicts a simplified OFDM system with 15+ functional blocks in the signal flow path. This is described in 8 lines, two of these being mathematical equations, with little clarity or correspondence between the building blocks and the text description. The guard interval insertion block has a little figure above, which is more appropriate for a cyclic prefix.I have come across a few books that are a pleasure to read, because they take the trouble and pain of putting themselves in the shoes of the reader, rather than adding a feather to the author's professional cap and some money in his or her pockets, even though this may be a lesser objective. To mention a few, I will quote "LTE for UMTS: Evolution to LTE-Advanced" [Hardcover/2nd edition ] by Harri Holma and Antti Toskala (sparing on maths), and "Mobile IP: The Internet Unplugged" [Paperback] by James Solomon (an older book with no current edition, which therefore risks being outdated). They could give the author a blueprint as to how to write effectively, from the standpoint of the reader.In general (and not specifically referring to this book) editors, if any, technical or administrative, let the attempt pass unchallenged. In some cases, there are half a dozen reviewers. Often there a prolixity of words, where a few figures would be much more elucidative. Some texts are deliberately short on figures, and in many cases, even where graphical illustrations are provided, there is a disconnect between the text and the illustration. I have been impressed with the high standard of technical books from Springer Verlag, with a Teutonic obsession for precision and rigor. It looks as if, crossing the pond, sleaze has crept in.Jose Oscar NoronhaScotch Plains, NJ

This book provides a fairly comprehensive treatment of the latest wireless standards. It strikes a good balance between physical layer theory and coverage of the standards. The author demonstrates thorough knowledge in this area.Unfortunately, the quality of the content is obscured by poor writing. Grammatical errors occur throughout, and sentences are often awkardly phrased. Take, for example, the very first sentence of the book: "A long way in a remarkably short time has been achieved in the history of wireless." It goes downhill from there. This is is totally unacceptable for a technical book, where clairity is of paramount importance.There is some potential here, but in its current state, I can't recommend the text.

This is a book for those who know and not for those who want to learn.If you are already familiar with the subject (e.g. OFDM) then you can browse through the content as a refresher of a few topics. It is very difficult to learn from this book because the explanations are poorly written, the notation and symbols used in some relationships are very confusing and because there is a lack of rigor in the derivations. A real pain...

It is an impressive work. The book is indeed timely. To my knowledge there is no other work in the field covering all aspects of mobile broadband wireless. I believe that it will find an appreciative audience among people who'd like a reference book that encompasses both wireless and standards effort, graduate students and people who are very familiar with wireless but haven't followed the recent developments in 4th generation (WiMAX, LTE and beyond) and related technologies (IMS, Cognitive Radio, etc).

Overall, I am pleased with its content. It is clearly written. The topics are covered in a nice way that is comprehensive. The treatment of topics is balanced. Some topics are overemphasized but that may be necessary for people who are beginners in the field.Many books are available in this field, but I believe this one is very comprehensive, especially emphasizing wimax and Lte technology no other book has done.