Customer Reviews

The Essential Guide to Telecommunications

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This book provided an excellent overview of the very broad range of telecommunications topics, including history, telephone technologies, data technologies, protocols, and standards; from twisted-pair copper through fiber-optic, cellular, and satellite. It is a very quick read and a great introduction to anyone new to telecommunications. Its coverage is very good considering the broad range of topics covered.

It does not, however, provide much depth on any one technology. Most topics, such as ATM, SONET, etc., are covered in one to four pages each. It was significantly less than I was looking for, but I am still impressed with how well Ms. Dodd covered such a broad range of topics. Anyone with a high school education, no telecom experience, and the motivation to do it, could read and learn from this book.

I just started my new job with Nortel about a month ago. I came with PC and Server knowledge - minimal telecom knowledge - just some basic facts like a T1 is 1.544Mbps with 24 channels...stuff like that. I needed to get up to speed real quick, so I got this book, 'The Essential Guide To Telecommunications 2nd Ed.', Communications Systems & Networks (ISBN 0764575228) and Newton's Telecom Dictionary 16th Ed.(ISBN:1578200539). This book will be my intro book, the Communications Systems & Networks will by my intermediate/advanced book, and the Newton Telecom Dictionary for a reference. I am just about done with The Essential Guide To Telecommunications 2nd Ed. and let me tell you this book is awesome (make sure you have the 'Newton Dictionary' by your side so you can look up terms for a more in depth explanation - I bring it everywhere I go). It gives you a GREAT basic foundation of knowledge and gives some side notes that fill in the gaps. I gave it 4 stars and not 5 because I went to the publishers website and was unable to find any eror list, (errata pages) for the book - for any books for that matter...and I doubt that the book is error free, could be but I doubt it. (Sybex's website does a good job of listing errors in their books - even if there are no errors reported, they state that so that you know they're checking) Anyway, the book is GREAT and I highly recommend it - along with the other two books I mentioned. The book does lack in depth details, but that's the point of an 'intro' book...right?

Cheers.

I'm an IT consultant with a good understanding and background in network design, and needed to get a quick grounding in telecom for a project. After spending a day in the bookstore,( and actually buying and returning another title), I found this book and took it home. It was the perfect overview of the subject for me! I got a good understanding of the terminology and foundation concepts, and often go back to certain sections to reinforce my understanding.

I gave it four stars rather than five because ot does have some flaws. As noted in some other reviews, the author glosses over key data communications topics like routing, bridging, VoIP. For those readers who need depth in these topics, there are better sources (Try titles by Radia Perlman or Uyless Black, for example).

For readers who need a strong fundamental understanding of telecom technologies, regulations, and implementations, this is the best general primer out there.

I was able to read this book from end-to-end, but it was annoying. The author provides lots of interesting data and mentions most new telecommunications products. HOWEVER, whenever she attempts any kind of technical explanation or conclusion she tends to be WRONG. If all the technical explanations and conclusions were removed, this would be a better book. As it is, I rate it one-star because I kept getting angry at the WRONGNESS of the technical explanations and conclusions.

If you already know what a switch, router and hub does and you are familiar with terms such as SONET, MUX and T1 this book will only frustrate you. Good for sales people who don't have tech. background (no offence intended). Essential guide......I can do without this one.

This book has a lot of good information, but it is so poorly written and edited, I can't believe it was published by a major publisher. The chapters are incredibly repetitive, and contain many outright errors---calling into doubt the credibility of the author in some instances (e.g., Unix is a "computer language" Huh?). Reading this thing was truly painful.

I bought this book because it appeared to be one of the few books aimed at non-technical readers that covered major telecoms concepts. While the scope is not disappointing, this book is so poorly organized that I simply stopped reading it. The book's disorganization and repetitiveness exist at several levels: across chapters, within chapters, and even within paragraphs.

On numerous occassions, the author uses a term or concept in a way that assumes a thorough understanding (prompting the reader to ask himself "has this already been introduced?"), then drops it, then explains it later on. In addition, some concepts are explained multiple times, with no real difference in the various explanations. Finally, often the sentences are so clumsily put together that the style simply prevents the reader from concentrating on the content.

A big disappointment.

I wanted a book that would explain the basic concepts and show the progressive changes from the telephone to the present hardware,software and its influence .In nearly every sphere this book fell short.After much searching and a bit of luck, i did find :ANATOMY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS by Tom Smith and ABC TeleTraing ,Inc. In less than 160 pages the author was able to do what this book and its many pages could not .

This book covers all new telcom technology and explains it in a easy to read format. Helpful to beginners as well as new comers to the industry. My company paid several hundreds of dollars for us to attend a Telcom Fundamentals class. This book is a much better investment. Also recommended are the Newton Telecom Dictionary and the Irwin Handbook.

Annabel Z. Dodd has a bad case of professoritis. That is, she knows a lot about her subject, but is completely unable to translate that knowledge into a logical and lucid explanation of the topic. The chapters are logically organized, but the subchapters and paragraphs appear to have been randomized. Often important information is placed well after the confusing details, so as to require a second reading for comprehension. A favorite trick of the author's is to tell you the history of something, before defining what it is. The copious charts often have no relationship to the text, or are so simplistic as to be irrelevant to understanding. Often the text bogs down in the minutia of protocols and definitions, and no clarifying examples of real-world uses are given. Finally, the editor (if there was one) did only the most cursory job of correcting the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in the text. I did learn something from this book, but sure had to work at deciphering the information out of triple-encrypted Dodd-speak to do so.