Customer Reviews

Telecom Crash Course

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, a word of warning: Pay heed to the reader's words from Woburn Mass, all of the 5 star reviews of this book actually are from people who are mentioned in the book's acknowledgements.

I purchased this book mostly to learn about telephony. I already know a lot about data networking, and I wanted to expand my knowledge of other aspects of telecom and optical WAN technologies like SONET and SDH. I knew I was in for trouble after reading about 50 pages. Have you ever read a technical book where you had a really hard time absorbing the info, even when you re-read the same paragraphs over and over again? Well, chances are it's not your fault, it's the author's! I can say this for sure about this book, b/c it described stuff that I already know about, and after reading it, I was more confused than before!

Part of the problem is the author's complete lack of organizational logic. On page 2, he describes all of the "techno-jargon" that permeates the telecom industry, and "often gets in the way of the relatively straightforward task of learning how all this stuff actually works". I totally agree, jargon should not obfuscate. BUT, if you're going to point out this common pitfall, you best avoid it yourself, and Shepard does not! He's all over the board, dropping terms and concepts with little or no explanation. About 10 pages in, it's already a muddled mess.

The mess gets worse. He discusses all of these different approaches to multiplexing, but doesn't take the time to explain what the basic process of multiplexing is all about until page 200! Throughout the entire book, he constantly refers to switching versus routing, but he doesn't explain the basic processes until the final 2 pages! These are just a couple examples that stuck out in my mind.

To be sure, there is some useful information to be gleaned here, but it's hard to sort out from all the "noise". Shepard gets into way too much detail on certain subjects and not enough on others, without any discernable logic. For example, he spends several pages discussing how fiber cables are manufactured, but spends less than one page discussing the basic processes of routing and switching. However, given the topic of the book, isn't the latter subject a lot more applicable? As far as I know, telecom professionals don't need to make the actual fiber cables.

This book is too technical for someone who doesn't know anything about telecom, and it's not practical enough for someone who knows a lot. If you're in between like me, you stand to gain a decent high-level overview of the industry, but the details are murky at best.

The author has a knack for seeing the big picture and coming up with funny metaphors to describe it (see Austrailian rules football in the other review). Also, he has a lot of friends in the business - four of the 5 star reviews below are from people listed in the acknowledgements. There is technical material here but the selection is sort of random, so you may or may not find a detailed explanation of a subject you're looking for. But his brief discussion of JPEG compression was so absurdly wrong it made me less enthusiastic about reading through the rest of his technical presentations.

I won't say this book is worthless, because he does have a marketer's flair for making business sense of technology and predicting trends, and there is probably enough material here to fill a few good magazine articles. One of them, on the psychology of computer hacking (inserted in the middle of a discussion of the OSI protocol stack), unfortunately has nothing to do with telecom. Also, the mini-Esperanto/English dictionary is entertaining but probably should have been left for the author's web site. I mean, I agree that's funny, but there are those of us who paid for a book on telecom.

Telecom's Crash Course is an excellent compilation of all major facets of the Telecommunications industry. As someone who monitors foreign investments into the US technology sector, I've found this both an excellent primer for newbies as well as a very helpful resource to those who have been doing this for a while.

The PROS: The book is comprehensive and walks through the very tactical level, detailed explanation of specific technologies and the many ways that a given portion of data can move across the planet. If you're new to the field, reading this book is the cheapest and fastest method to be armed with a semi-comprehensive knowledge spanning the industry.

The CONS: I can see how people could say that this book gets lost in the weeds because the explanations are sometimes extensive, detailed, and probably don't fit the bill if you're looking for a book covering the overall trends present in the telecoms market. If you're looking for a "big concepts" book only, this isn't for you. Reviewers commenting on the book's lack of focus were probably hoping primarily for a "here are the major trends in the industry" and not an industry technology primer, a "crash course" in the industry.

Buy the paperback. It's a bit of a painful read in places, but hey, this is Telecoms, and it doesn't get too many people hyper excited--if you're buying a book called "Telecoms Crash Course" and expecting a nail-biting thriller, you probably have some misplaced expectations! Enjoy.

If I were starting out in the telecommuncations field, this would be the first book that I'd recommend that anyone read. It gives you a high level look at: what protocols do and are used for; what the primary access technologies are; a great description of the telephony system that provides the main infrastructure of the Internet; and, the primary transport technologies that are being used today.
Because this is a "crash course" book don't look for great detail in every topic, however, if you are looking for a compendium that covers the telecomm field all in one book then this is the book you need. My networking background has been mostly in the copper and fiber optic technologies, so I found the sections about the new 802.11 wireless technologies the most interesting. But some of things that I found unique for a book like this and most fascinating are the pictures of scenes and equipment taken inside of actual telephone central offices and the anecdotes about real life happenings in the telecommuncations world. For those of you interested in the state of the telecommuncations industry, you may want to go straight to the last chapter entitled "Final Thoughts" where the author gives some very interesting comments about the industry on a global view.
So if you have anything to do with telecommunications, be it as a user, CTO, IT manager, technology student, technology teacher, marketing or sales person of telecom or buyer of telecom, then this book should have a place on your desk.

The book, in my opinion, will be useful to the people not having a technical education and working in sphere of telecommunications and allied industries; for the beginners, wishing to expand the knowledge; for the employees responsible for administration of telecommunication services of the organizations; for managers on sales, marketing, management of projects, and also telecommunication managers and managers of a high level.

This is a fantastic book if you want an overview that focuses on technical and some business aspects of telecommunications, and are someone that enjoys reading more techie-oriented material. (For the record, I am an MechE by training who is now working for one of the companies mentioned in the book, so this really was my entire Intro course to Telecom, and I plan to continue my learning. This book was an excellent guide for future, more in-depth subjects to pursue.)

The book does an excellent job of being ubiquitous and covering all the aspects of the telecom field that you've ever heard about. At the same, I found it easy to skip around in reading chapters, based on my own priorities in buying the book. The chapters are divided very logically into sections on the Telephone network, Access technologies, Transport options, Protocols, etc. (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you will after reading this book :).
One of my favorite aspects of the books is that the author is very good at using diagrams to supplement his text, which can be rare in more engineering/technical books. The whole picture-worth-a-thousand-words idea, especially if you take the time to go through the diagrams.
Yes, the text can require a few read-throughs - but telecommunications itself is a dense field that really requires one to be patience in reading and gain understanding of the technology. There *is* a lot of detail stuffed through out the chapters, and perhaps not everyone will care to know everything -- but that is alright, there is no harm in skipping the nitty-gritty of sections that do not interest you.

Please, please, please do not let the bad reviews of this book discourage you from checking it out. I just finished reading the entire book, and wanted to log on to share my high opinion of it.

This book is an excellent professional reference for anyone needing to get a jump start on learning about data and telecommunications. Not a detailed techie book, this book provides the crash course hinted at in the title by hitting all of the major issues that one will run into in voice and data networking today and quickly get you up to speed on the basics. It is accurate *and* well-written!! Great preparatory reading also before going to the next level.

I've been telecom industry for fifteen years and always had a difficult time explaining to friends and non industry folks how the business works. This book makes sense of it all in easy and fun read for the professional and the new comer.
Richard Parlato

The author of Telecom Crash Course, Stephen Shepard, is one of the most interesting, knowledgeable writers in the field today.
Drawing upon nearly three decades of personal experience and research, he manages to turn what could be a dreadfully dull subject into a scintillating story of science, history and data communicaion hardware.

The content is up-to-date and well organized, the illustrations very appropriate and the index very thorough. Personally, however, I find Mr. Shepherd's sense of humor in the face of such weighty topics to be the best part of my reading experience.

Who else could work Vinton Cerf and Douglas Adams into the same narrative?

Mr. Shepherd uses ingenious metaphors to clarify difficult concepts, as he does in the excerpt below regarding conflicting world standards.

"Many countries play football, for example, but the rules are all slightly different. In the United States, players are required to weigh more than a car, yet be able to run faster than one. In Australian Rules football, the game is declared forfeit if it fails to produce at least one body part amputaion on the field...They are both football, however.In data communications, the problem is similar; there are many protocols out there that accomplish the same thing."

Mr. Shepherd manages to infuse what could be a terribly dry catalog of facts with cheerful, sometimes almost whimsical language that keeps the reader's interest throughout the most convoluted jungle of acronyms, jargon and obscure technical terminology.

I found the information in this text to be clear, logical and very helpful in leading me to a better understanding of the highly important field of 21st century telecommunications.

Buy this book, you won't regret it.

Kenneth Wade
Associate Professor
Champlain College

This is a great book for both the beginner and the experienced practitioner in telecommunications. Steve presents a balance of the technical AND business issues facing telecommunications service providers and telecommunications service consumers. It's rare to find a book that combines both aspects so well. Steve's writing style is conversational and he neither overwhelms nor "dumbs down" the material. Highly recommended!