2.0 out of 5 stars
Too many topics too little time, Aug 7 2004
By A Customer
There were a lot of interesting topics covered in this book, but unfortunately because of the volume of material that the author attempted to include, there was little on any one subject.
Also, beware the questions at the end of the chapter if you're using this book for a class. They tend to be rather vague.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
Too many acronyms ...., Dec 24 2002
This book was well written and covered a broad range of topics which gives the reader a good general knowledge of how digital and analog signals work and how they are encoded and decoded. The author is very knowledgeable however he needs to realize that his readers are (perhaps) not as smart or experienced in this field as he is. The extensive use of acronyms throughout the text make it difficult at times to fully understand what is being taught. I found myself paging back in the book to look up the acronyms just to understand what I was reading.
It would also be quite helpful if the author offered a study guide to accompany the text containg solutions the questions at the end of the chapter. Practice questions are a lot more helpful if the student actually has some way to verify that they are doing the questions correctly.
Overall the book was well written although the author should concentrate on using full terms instead of stating the term at the beginning of the book and using the acronym through out the rest of the text.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
interesting, Aug 17 2002
By A Customer
I found this book interesting. It explores the mathematics behind waves and frequencies and transmissions, encoding, etc... You should have some college calculus to be really comfortable with this book or have a friend who is into math. Probably a good textbook, but may be frustrating if you are self-studying for some reason (if you don't know a lot about math, that is).
But the math concepts are only introduced as they are needed, and you will need to find other places to learn the stuff you need there. I also noticed that some of the questions at the end of the chapters have answers that are nowhere to be found in the book. Strange, that. I guess it assumes you have an internet connection. Much, if not all of the material in this book can be found on the internet in greater detail free of charge. But that still does not mean that the book is useless. It depends on how much the purchase price means to you.
What this book does is gives you a framework that helps you know what to study, and what the major subject categories in this field are. And in some circles, it is very valuable that it also gives you the mathematical background behind what is going on.
I would imagine you could skip this one if you know what you need to learn. If the purchase price is daunting, you would probably be just as well off just using the table of contents of this book as the "list" of things to know about networking. This book appears to be some sort of standard in the colleges around this country and the world. Even though it may not fit your learning style, or you may not be big on math, there are countless folks using this book so it might be helpful in that way. It gives you an overview of the field. A big picture, so to speak.
In a way, this book, like many textbooks, ask the question of how important is your need to understand what other people are doing, even if it is not your specialty or your area of expertise.
This may be an excellent book for a manager of a large organization who wants to get an overview, WITH MATH, of the current networks and communications systems.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No