How Wireless Works (How It Works Series (Emeryville, Calif.).) [Paperback]

Preston Gralla (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789724871 | ISBN-13: 978-0789724878 | Publication Date: September 13, 2001

How Wireless Works continues in the How It Works series tradition by explaining every aspect of wireless communications, from the remote control on your coffee table to the most sophisticated wireless Internet networks. As wireless technology proliferates, readers will need to understand how wireless technologies work in order to make educated buying and business decisions related to wireless technologies. This book will provide readers with a basic technical background on wireless technologies, including infrared, radio-frequency, power line, and PNA (wireless home networking.) The book will also explain the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, so the reader will understand which technology is best suited to a particular application. Where appropriate, we¿ll explain the differences between competing industry standards, so readers can make an informed buying decision.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Any sufficiently advanced technology," said 2001 author Arthur C. Clarke, "is indistinguishable from magic." By that standard, those of us who carry wireless phones and palmtop computers have been running around with more magical devices than the average character in a Harry Potter novel. How Wireless Works aims to strip wireless of its mystical characteristics, and succeeds wonderfully with illustrations and highly modular text. The proven How It Works series format suits wireless technology very well, largely because wireless services can be explained as stories (the handset sends the dialed number to the nearest base station, which contacts its switching center, which routes the call, and so on). Preston Gralla, a great explainer of technical subjects who's written several fine books, makes great use of the "enhanced comic book" style to show what talks to what, when, and why. He doesn't oversimplify, either. Though reading this book won't fully prepare you for a job at a wireless service provider, it will enable you to speak intelligently about the differences among various mobile telephony standards.

It's very hard to find fault with this book. All the latest technologies receive attention, including the emerging Voice XML (VXML) concept and the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) standard that sees widespread Japanese use in NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service. Gralla also does his readers a service by explaining activities like mobile-phone service theft. --David Wall

Topics covered: Ways of communicating voice, data, video, and pretty much anything else over distances, without having a wired connection. This covers the whole range of technologies, from old-fashioned AM radio to swanky new services like third-generation (3G) mobile and location-based services. Internetworking is explained in the context of the unplugged Internet, and short-range wireless specifications like Bluetooth get attention, too.

From the Back Cover

How Wireless Works continues in the How It Works series tradition by explaining every aspect of wireless communications, from the remote control on your coffee table to the most sophisticated wireless Internet networks. As wireless technology proliferates, readers will need to understand how wireless technologies work in order to make educated buying and business decisions related to wireless technologies. This book will provide readers with a basic technical background on wireless technologies, including infrared, radio-frequency, power line, and PNA (wireless home networking.) The book will also explain the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, so the reader will understand which technology is best suited to a particular application. Where appropriate, we¿ll explain the differences between competing industry standards, so readers can make an informed buying decision.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Que (September 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789724871
• ISBN-13: 978-0789724878
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,980,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, October 31, 2001

By 

"johnnoe" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Wireless Works (How It Works Series (Emeryville, Calif.).) (Paperback)

If you want to know how any kind of wireless technology works, this is the book for you. Whether it's wireless networks, wireless Internet access, cell phones, WAP, pagers, WSDL...it's all here. The introductory material is great for anyone wanting to understand concepts like how data and information can be sent wireless, how the electromagnetic spectrum works, etc. And even the more complicated material is easy to follow --- the illustrations are clear and are great for explaining wireless concepts. Anyone interested in wireless technology should get this book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for beginners, May 30, 2004

By 

Thomas L. McQueary (N. Richland Hills, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Wireless Works (How It Works Series (Emeryville, Calif.).) (Paperback)

This book fulfills its role as the very first book one may wish to read if he/she knows nothing at all about wireless technology and wants a broad overview of the subject. The colorful pictures and brief text descriptions makes the book accessible to newbies. The reader is then prepared to move into more advanced books on this interesting subject.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great illustration of the basics, October 4, 2007

By 

B. Dunsing (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Wireless Works (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

A previous reviewer wrote "takes one concept and manages to fill an entire book" as being a negative. The author makes it clear up front that all these technologies use the same basic concept - attaching data to a wave and sending it - so what do you expect?? I'm a wireless engineer and thoroughly enjoyed how the author laid out each technology in a step-by-step fashion, complete with full color illustrations and interesting side notes. I originally picked this book up at the library, but decided I needed my own for quick and enjoyable reference.