Customer Reviews

The New McGraw-Hill Telecom Factbook

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In his last public speech, noted Nobel Prize winner and leading Manhattan Project member Isidor Isaac Rabi said, "Science, for its progress, its understanding and so on, depends so much on truth and on clarity. And the question is: Are we living in a society where truth and clarity are an important element of our culture?" We placed Rabi's thought-provoking statement on the third page of our book because it so clearly expresses what we, as authors, strove to accomplish.

In any technical book, nothing is more important than accurate, factual information, or in Rabi's words - technical truth. Unfortunately, particularly in introductory books, inadequate scope, oversimplification, and shallow or incorrect definition and explanations of key technologies deny readers the factual understanding they invest their time to learn.

And, if accuracy is paramount, clarity ranks a close second in terms of desirable introductory technical book attributes. Books comprehensible only by scholars or technologists with existing in-depth knowledge and mathematical prowess, are of little help to business people and individuals that make up the majority of those who must use today's advanced technologies.

The principal objective of our updated book remains to provide a reliable, comprehensive introduction and insightful perspectives into all modern telecommunications services and underlying technologies. A second objective-no less important than the first-is to employ a presentation style easily understood by government and commercial telecommunications planners, managers, users, and professionals who do not have the time to sift through multiple publications, complex formulae, and mathematics only to be forced to draw their own conclusions regarding technology, performance, and market alternatives.

We treat all important telecommunications services and technologies, but the quantity of information is limited to that needed for complete understanding. In addition, rather than just addressing topics individually, expert interpretations provide a valuable grasp of "bottom line" relationships among emerging services, technologies, and industry standards.

Simplicity of presentation style does not sacrifice the ability to familiarize readers with industry terminology and essential concepts-which is often the case with introductory material. To accomplish this, we systematically present basic definitions as part of explanations of larger concepts. This equips readers not only with terminology, but also with rationale behind real-world applications, a tremendous advantage for thorough understanding and memory retention.

In this respect, perhaps the feature of the original "The McGraw-Hill Telecommunications Factbook" contributing most to its popularity and effectiveness is the rich array, quality and clarity of its figures. Using over 240 figures, the new book goes far beyond simply identifying and defining panoplies of services and technologies. Inimitable technology taxonomy charts form the basis for uncommonly clear explications that fully apprise readers of essential differences and the practical advantages among alternative technology options.

The appearance of such a book could not have been more timely. The mushrooming rate of introduction of new technologies has created an enormous need for technically literate employees and a critical shortage of such workers in the United States. Since current laws limit the use of immigrants, many businesses are pursuing aggressive US recruitment and intensive training programs. Because many of the rapidly appearing new technologies are more complex than their predecessors, new and more efficient learning techniques and tools are a necessity. In this regard, we honestly believe our book has established new plateaus of pedagogical excellence.

We are proud of the fact that readers with no prior engineering or mathematical backgrounds, with only vague perceptions of what analog or digital electronic signals might be, can pick up our book, and gain a practical appreciation of telecommunications fundamentals; acquire a familiarity with industry standard terminology; and end up with working understandings of complex capabilites like DS1/DS3 (T1/T3) asynchronous multiplexing; SONET synchronous multiplexing; modulation schemes used in some of the most advanced digital subscriber link (DSL) and cellular wireless services; insights into the most successful and valuable Internet technologies; and, countless other pivotal telecommunications technologies that can bolster the success of nearly every enterprise, and indeed all industrialized nations.

We believe that imparting substantive explanations of telecommunications technologies is markedly different than the practice of simply heralding, "headline-grabbing", "bell and whistle" features of new technologies - which is all that is offered in superficial introductory manuscripts.

But, beyond salutary effects that telecommunications has on companies or nations, are more personal benefits. In fact, telecommunications is the technology most directly related to man's highest faculty and his most sublime activities: namely, his acquisition of information, the thoughts by which he interprets and postulates new ideas and conclusions, and the exchange of his thoughts with others to refine and iterate the process. There is no question that telecommunications greatly augments both the potential quality and the timeliness of these powerful and uniquely human abilities.

In truth, what modern agricultural and grocery-product transportation and distribution technologies do for men's stomachs is analogous to what telecommunications technologies do for men's minds. And with the pace of new technology advancement approaching the "speed of light through fiber cables", the possibilities are exciting and perhaps unbounded. Acquire the book and read on - the fun is just beginning!

This insightful work brings the divergent worlds of voice and data together. It provides a clear view of converging information technologies and implications for business processes. The Factbook is an indispensable guide to sound management decision-making.

Our telecommunications group has adopted the Factbook as its principal desk reference. And when it's needed, it's needed badly, so we each have a copy.

The Factbook is our go-to survival tool in today's information network jungle!...

The New McGraw Hill Telecom Factbook 2d Edition by Joe Pecar and Dave Garbin is one of the best reference books I have ever used.It is long overdue and a must have reference on your shelf. It addresses subjects that other authors seem to treat only slightly if at all. The authors ability to explain complex subject s in a clear easily understandable manner is unique. The many illustrations and diagrams are usable by both lay persons and engineers alike. This would have been an excellent text to have had available for my college courses. This book is a key reference in my program office and I continually need to add more copies.I recommend the reading and use of this factbook to all professionasl and laymen alike who are serious about understanding the modern complex world of Telecommunications and Information Systems. Norman D Jorstad, Telecom and Information Systems Engineer and Program Manager.

This book clearly emerged as the winner after I reviewed several tcom/dcom books on the market in search of a book to use for an upcoming graduate/mba course I was teaching. The understanding and development demonstrated by the students throughout the course confirmed this choice. The feedback from the students and my own opinion echoes previous reviews in that the book clearly and concisely communicates the complexities of this industry (technical, legal/regulatory, pricing/tariff, and management.) I think it succinctly bridges that difficult gap b/w an engineer's detailed knowledge and the requisite business acumen needed to master this industry. If you are engaged in any aspect of this industry (business development, product development/management, marketing, sales, operations, etc.) I think you will find this book very useful in your career.

The New McGraw Hill Telecom Factbook, 2d Edition, by Joe Pecar and Dave Garbin is a technically exact and easily readable guide for students, managers, and other non-technical readers.

As a senior manager for a major IXC, I found The New Telecom Factbook succinctly provides industry-accepted terminology in a useful way for both telecommunications managers and engineers. This book will help acclimate many non-engineering people entering the telecommunications field by providing simple and precise definitions of emerging technology and terms that are technically exact, yet easily understandable for non-technical readers. The New Telecom Factbook provides telecommunications managers, users, and professionals with a single, up-to-date reference with for new technology, performance metrics, and market alternatives.

Having previously used the earlier edition of The Telecom Factbook to teach telecommunications courses, it's clear that the authors have again produced an excellent tutorial that is easily suitable for graduate-level courses in information technology and telecommunications systems tracks. Thorough presentations of complex material will systematically allow students to become familiar with industry terminology and key concepts. Detailed figures and excellent technology taxonomy charts further provide those without prior engineering or mathematical backgrounds with easy-to-follow roadmaps that cover all telecommunications fundamentals. The book also introduces many complex capabilities including DS1/DS3 (T1/T3) asynchronous multiplexing; SONET synchronous multiplexing; modulation schemes used in digital subscriber link (DSL) and cellular wireless services; Internet technologies; and many other technical topics essential for success in our emerging and converging telecommunications environment.

Joe Pecar has done it again with the second edition, and surpassing his excellent first edition of McGraw-Hill's best selling Telecommunications Factbook. And, just in time. I work in the Militarily Critical Technologies Program and have practically worn out my copy of the first edition. The new edition is written in the same straight forward layman's language, so you don't have to have an advanced degree in engineering to understand it. I particularly like his diagrams; for example, the overview figure illustrating packet data network IP transport alternatives and the illustration of the taxonomy of data services. The acronym list and the glossary alone are worth the price of the book.

Landgrave T. Smith, Jr. Chairman, Information Security Technologies Working Group 23 January 2001

Pecar and Garbin have the rare ability to convey a complex technical subject in an easy to understand manner. The New Telecom Factbook can be read from cover to cover, piecemeal, or be used as a reference manual. This book weaves the confluence of Telecom Network Architecture, Technology, Regulation, and Services into a story of amazing clarity. If you need to rapidly come up to speed in Telecom, I highly recommend this book. If you are getting started in Optical Networking this book will be an important tool to help you place the current optical build-out into perspective. I will refer to this book often. -Brad Boersen, MIT System Design and Management Program

I found this book to be invaluable as a comprehensive source of information about telecommunications networks and related subjects. Unlike many other texts, this book does not assume that the reader is a consultant in the industry or has a strong engineering background. Even the choice of each chapter subject is carefully thought out so as to save the time and effort required of the businessperson who needs focused knowledge quickly. Pecar and Garbin do a great service by providing an outline, or basis for research of the expansive technologies and practical and historical approaches to the challenge of telecommunications. This book will see a lot of use in my office.. if I can keep it there.. It usually ends up in somebody elses!.

Twenty plus years ago, I sold computer systems based on their remarkable capacity to store, sort, manipulate, and retrieve large volumes of data. The net value of computer systems today is in the internet, intranet, and extranet, thanks to the continuous merging of computer and communications technology. Having entered the age of computications, anyone engaged in IT sales and marketing needs to understand the communications dimension of the computing business. This book, written in English, makes it possible...and almost easy.

Telecom Factbook by Pecar and Garbin is an excellent reference book. It is extremely complete and a very readable. This is a book that should be valuable to Telecom engineers, telecom sales people and telecom and managers. The language used in the book is straightforward with understandable examples and figures. I can certainly recommend this book to anyone desiring a better understanding of telecom technology. William Ellis, Finisar Corp.