Preface
This book presents a broad survey of the fundamentals of wireless communication engineering technologies, spanning the field from radio frequency, antennas, and propagation, to wireless access technologies, to network and service architectures, to other topics, such as network management and security, agreements, standards, policies and regulations, and facilities infrastructure.
Every author has to answer two major questions: (1) What is the scope of coverage of the book, in terms of breadth of topics and depth of discussion of each topic, focus and perspective, and assumptions of prior knowledge of the readers? and (2) Who are the intended readers of the book? I am honored to have been a member of the Practice Analysis Task Force convened by IEEE Communications Society to draft the syllabus and examination specifications of IEEE Communication Society's Wireless Communication Engineering Technologies (WCET) certification program. The scope of coverage of this book has been strongly influenced by the syllabus of the WCET program.
This book is designed to be helpful to three main groups of readers:
- Readers who would like to understand a broad range of topics in practical wireless communications engineering, from fundamentals and theory to practical aspects. For example, wireless engineers with a few years of experience in wireless might find themselves deeply involved with one or two aspects of wireless systems, but not actively keeping up-to-date with other aspects of ...