Customer Reviews

OFDM Wireless LANs: A Theoretical and Practical Guide

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I cannot understand how this book can get reviews with more than 1 star given the number of mathematical errors it contains.

Ok, it IS a nice intro. But do not rely on the formulas !

This is by far the best book on the topic that I have read. The book is perfect for someone who has a very strong CS background but is interested in understanding physical layer issues.

This book is an excellent text that is suitable for experts and novices alike. Its coverage of the fundamentals of OFDM transmission makes it applicable to those who want to learn about the IEEE 802.11a and HiperLAN/2 standards as well as the recently drafted IEEE 802.11g. The examples and illustrations provided in the text are clear and concise and really helped me to better understand some of the concepts that other texts failed to cover adequately. I especially liked the practical exercises and examples. I found this to be extremely useful during my self-study since I haven't found the time to enroll in a class on WLANs. I grade the overall quality of the book as *****.

I think this book is an excellent book to understand OFDM WLANs. It goes through the main topics in a nice and organized way and mention all what you want. Also it provides lots of equations as well as figures to help understanding. I really recommend this book if you are interested to learn about WLAN system based on OFDM.

This is an excellently written text for engineers and students interested in learning about the 802.11 and HiperLAN/2 PHY for WLANs(Wireless Local Area Networks). The book covers much more than just OFDM; the text includes a review of many of the basic facets of communication system design including convolutional coding, synchronization, and modulation principles. What Terry and Heiskala have managed to do is to take the reader from the basic principles of communication theory (the first chapter includes a nice review of linear system theory) through the implementation details of the 802.11 and HiperLAN/2 OFDM physical layer. While the primary focus is on the physical layer, there is also treatment of the entire WLAN system including a chapter on MACs (Medium Access Control) for 802.11 and HiperLAN/2. In general, the book is very complete and would be an excellent text for a course on WLAN technology. At the same time, the brief review sections and readable style make it accessable to the practicing communications engineer who may be new to this topic. Designers of 802.11 and HiperLAN/2 physical layers will find this a handy guidebook, with useful curves and data all in one place. Like any good text, a list of references is included after each section, pointing the interested reader to sources of more material. There are ample block diagrams, curves, tables and equations which help one to understand the material and make it a pleasure to read.

The book also contains exercises throughout and provides a website with simulation code for this purpose. The book even goes a step further with a chapter on how to implement the PHY designs in FPGA hardware. It is rare to find a text which takes the reader from theory to hardware in so complete and interesting a manner. 5 stars.

This excellent text is suitable for those from the student level up to professional engineers who choose to study IEEE 802.11a and HiperLAN/2. Its structure allows for better understanding of the basic facet of communications while allowing experts to reference it for it's sections on the 802.11a and the HiperLAN physical layer. From the practical exercises to the diagrams and equations, this book includes all aspects of WLAN in one easily read, convenient source.

This book is really not good. I bought it for a final paper I had to do. It didn't explain the concepts clearly and left a lot of stuff "out there" expecting you to know it. I really can't find words to describe how bad this book is. After reading to chapters 1-3 three times, I just gave up and got another book.

I have been in this business a good many years. In my opinion this is a book that very definitely merits a 5 star rating. The topics are very clearly dealt with and in an easy to understand manner. The software that accompanies this book is in my opinion, a first. It is of a high calibre in terms of coding and performance and merits close study and helps to really understand the subject. I recommend this book to 802.11a specialists everywhere.

I found this book to be an excellent mix of theory and practice. This book covers more details than short tutorial courses given at conferences but has more general concepts than some books that cover standards related communications. There are ample references to allow researchers to selectively delve into the more mathematical aspects or quickly come up to speed on some of the more recent research progress. I especially liked the chapters on "modulation & coding" and antenna diversity. Some of the more standard topics (e.g. RF distortion analysis) were helpful to non-RF people like myself.

I originally bought this book because of a small interest on the HiperLAN physical layer and was throughly surprised by the content. The diagrams, equations, and accompanying software gave me a greater understanding of HiperLAN and IEEE 802.11a than I thought it would in a relatively short period of time. Other books of this depth that I browsed through were in a signifcantly different price range and often weren't as easy to follow. I would recommend this text to any who need a helping hand with either of these two areas of communications and I'm sure even quite a few experts would find the book useful.