| ...fundamental concepts, the latest design techniques and the most advanced architectures for tackling wireless communications problems...covers source coding, baseband signal shaping, adaptive air interfaces, and much more.
This is a book about the technological foundations of the next generation of wireless networks, including the so-called third generation, or 3G, for the mobile Internet. It is a vast subject, encompassing a variety of new services, applications, and air interfaces. In this book I have focused on the lowest layers of the system: how the wireless information-bearing signal is constructed, and the choice of physical-layer transmission techniques and coding strategies capable of withstanding the extreme environment of the wireless channel.
I have tried to emphasize the general lines of technical development and core principles, rather than focusing on specific air interface standards. Underneath the wide variety of prospective technical solutions, there are a few common engineering challenges. The third generation and other new wireless standards must operate at much higher bit rates, and must deliver a much cleaner signal. Conventional approaches to managing the physical channel will not suffice. We are entering a new historical phase of intensive innovation, in which I believe that wireless technology will again become the leading edge for communications engineering in general. This book is planned as the first of three or four related volumes on this next generation wireless. Subsequent volumes will deal with higher-level architectures designed to support multiple access in wireless networks, as well as the emerging suite of wireless applications (beyond voice) that will soon transform these networks into an infrastructure for true multimedia services.
This is also a book about an intellectual revolution, the outlines of which are just now becoming visible. The source of illumination is the challenge of optimizing the wireless channel (although its effects will undoubtedly extend to all corners of communications and information science). Today we are beginning to realize that many of our received ideas no longer entirely fit the physical and engineering realities of the systems we are building. As has often happened in the history of science, engineering solutions are outpacing the standard models. Our ways of thinking about communications problems are in flux, and our explanations are far less coherent than we like to imagine.
About the Author George Calhoun has worked in the wireless industry since 1980, most recently as the Chairman and CEO of Illinois Superconductor Corp. (aka ISCO), a public company involved in the development of interference-control solutions for the wireless industry. He was a co-founder of InterDigital Communications Corporation. He is also the author of Wireless Access & the Local Telephone Network and Digital Cellular Radio (Artech House, 1992, 1988). He can be contacted at geo@georgecalhoun.com |