Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source for Communications Fundamentals, Data Networking and the Internet, and Next-Generation Networks [Paperback]

Lillian Goleniewski (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201760320 | ISBN-13: 978-0201760323 | Publication Date: January 5, 2002 | Edition: 1

Whether you're new to telecommunications and IT or simply want an understandable, comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art, this book is for you. Leading telecommunications trainer and consultant Lillian Goleniewski combines clear explanations of fundamental principles with in-depth, up-to-the minute coverage of networking and the Internet. More than competitive guides, Telecommunications Essentials combines the global breadth and technical depth readers need to truly master telecommunications. Telecommunications Essentials covers the entire spectrum of telecommunications technology and services, current and emerging: telephony (voice networks), IP telephony, data networks, broadband, cable, xDSL, wireless, the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), pervasive computing, Quality of Service, and much more. The book is supported by a telecommunications knowledge Web portal delivering over 5,500 key telecom and Internet technology resources. For every professional who needs to understand telecommunications, including IT professionals, business decision-makers, marketers, salespeople, public relations professionals, investors, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Telecommunications Essentials is the complete global reference on telecommunications technologies, applications, and networks. The book is based on the globally acclaimed LIDO Telecommunications Essentials(R) seminar series, which I’ve had the pleasure of conducting, globally, since 1984.

This book is designed to allow a non-technical professional, as well as technical professional wishing to expand their range of knowledge, to develop an understanding of the language and concepts comprising telecommunications, while also providing enough technical depth to develop a sound knowledge of the key technologies and network infrastructures. Its organization reflects the logical progression of telecommunications developments and solutions, allowing one to develop a historical basis for appreciating the evolution of telecommunications, while developing an enthusiasm for realizing the magnitude of the revolution yet to come.

My academic background in clinical psychology, combined with 21 years of practical experience in telecommunications consulting and education, allows me to deliver information about complex technologies with a distinct human touch, one designed not just to teach you the principles of telecommunications, but to also engage your interest, and inspire your desire to learn more.

Realizing that the study of telecom involves lifelong learning, Telecommunications Essentials is supported with an online learning environment, including LIDO Telecom WebCentral(R), a knowledge portal offering access to over 6,000 web resources, as well as the Telecom Essentials Learning Center, where you can take online quizzes, engage in or create discussion groups, access an online glossary, and find over 1,000 recommendations on selected books, magazines and websites, all organized according to the chapters of the book.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Telecommunications Essentials

“In Telecommunications Essentials, Goleniewski guides us through the ever-changing world of telecommunications with much sense and a great deal of style. Her wide ranging and in-depth study into this complex field is superbly researched and written. Its emphasis on learning and technology is thought-provoking and never fails to be relevant to the field today. It is essential reading.”

—Chris Barclay, Director, Strategy & Planning, Retail, Telstra

“Lillian Goleniewski has a gift in presenting the complexity of telecommunications to her audiences. The careers of countless people in Australia have benefited from their contact with her. Her material is now captured in this book, which should rightfully grace any self-respecting technical collection.”

—Dr. Bob Horton, Deputy Chairman, Australian Communications Authority

“If you need one good reference book on telecom, this is it. It’s comprehensive, easy to understand, and up-to-date on latest technology—definitely a must-have for both beginners and professionals.”

—To Chee Eng, Principal Anaylst, Telecoms and Internet, Gartner Group

“Lili Goleniewski is a gifted communicator and educator who combines clear explanation of complex technologies with a firm grasp of the dynamic commercial environment in which those technologies are being deployed. The author’s extensive international experience in communicating to an audience drawn from diverse cultures and differing levels of familiarity with technical concepts and the English language enables her to enliven subject matter that otherwise can be dauntingly unapproachable. I commend this book to anyone seeking to develop their understanding of developing communications technologies, regardless of their technical background.”

—Peter Leonard, Managing Partner, Technology and Communications, Gilbert & Tobin Lawyers

“Telecommunications Essentials provides a thorough overview of all aspects of the telecommunications network. Whether you are new to telecom or have years of experience, this well-organized and detailed reference will help you learn what you need to know or remember what you have forgotten.”

—David West, Vice President, Equinox Information Systems

“Here is a book that demystifies a technical world. Lili applies a matter-of-fact style and laces this with humor and the occasional wonder to weave all the complex building blocks of the telecommunications industry into a readable book. The book will be a permanent fixture on my ‘go to find an answer’ reference list.”

—Kiron Chatterjee, Koshen Holdings and Former CEO of Asia Online

“Telecommunication Essentials is an excellent high-level view of telecom. It provides interesting examples of actual and potential applications in telecom. This is an extraordinarily useful and timely book.”

—Natasha K. Zaslove, Lawyer

“Reviewing Lili’s book was a joy. Telecommunications Essentials approaches the subject unlike typical academic or reference texts—instead, it tells stories, effectively and engagingly explaining the new culture evolving around telecommunications, with just the right amount of relevant technical details. Telecommunications Essentials traces the evolution of public networks from simple voice conduits to the life-changing multiservice information universe of the near future, intriguingly and provocatively predicting how we, as humans, might radically change our interactions—with each other and with machines—as a result. I recommend Lili’s book to anyone seeking an informative, enjoyable ride through today's telecommunications landscape.”

—Steven Riley, Microsoft Telecommunications Consulting

Telecommunications Essentials is an in-depth introduction to the rapidly growing world of telecommunications. The book provides a global perspective, which ensures a complete understanding of telecommunications technologies and standards worldwide. Providing a comprehensive, one-stop reference for anybody wanting to get up to speed on the $2.5 trillion telecommunications industry, this book not only covers the basic building blocks but also introduces the most current information on new technologies like wireless, broadband, and optical networking.

Topics include:

Technology Basics

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks)

Switching and Routing

Data Communications

Frame Relay, ATM

Internet Infrastructure

VPNs, VoIP, Streaming Media

Broadband Architectures

Security

Optical Networking

Cable

Wireless

Fiber

xDSLs

The broadband home

Goleniewski's clear approach to current and emerging technologies - starting with important terms and definitions, and moving to systems, networks, and the latest applications, products, and services - is based on the very successful worldwide LIDO Telecommunications Essentials seminar and e-Learning series. This approach makes Telecommunications Essentials a must-have resource for any reader, whether new to the field of telecommunications or a seasoned professional.

And as an added bonus, Telecommunications Essentials is augmented by a dynamic online telecom learning center, www.telecomessentials.com/learningcenter, designed to enhance and further your learning experience. The Telecom Essentials Learning Center includes access to:

Self-tests and quizzes to put your new found knowledge to the test.

Discussion forums for student interactions and Q&A.

Recommended books and magazines that will allow you to build your telecommunications knowledge.

Recommended websites, selected according to their relevance to the topics in each chapter.

The LIDO Organization, Inc.'s Telecommunications Essentials educational products are further supported by a unique telecommunications knowledge portal, LIDO Telecom WebCentral, www.telecomwebcentral.com. This portal brings you access to:

More than 6,000 learning resources and video tutorials featured on the site.

Brand new information on financial and legal news.

Up-to-the-moment information on the latest applications.

Connections to telecom career groups and newsgroups.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (January 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201760320
• ISBN-13: 978-0201760323
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,523,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best telecom reference in print, May 8, 2002

By 

Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source for Communications Fundamentals, Data Networking and the Internet, and Next-Generation Networks (Paperback)

Lillian Goleniewski has done the IT community a service. She's written a coherent, comprehensive guide to the telecommunications world. "Telecommunications Essentials" doesn't omit technical details. It frames them within a business and historical context that similar books lack. I've read and reviewed three other recently published telecom titles, and this one is clearly the best. Some of the details I enjoyed were descriptions of how fiber is manufactured, the number of wire pairs associated with various transmission media, and specifications for various global television standards.

The telecom world is full of agencies, standards, and products, each referenced by a three- or four-letter acronym. Lillian guides the reader through this technology jungle, offering clear descriptions and historical background. She also provides a thorough glossary (87 pages) and index. Another of the book's impressive features is its global focus, with attention given to E- and J- carrier, as well as T-carrier, systems. Other examples include cellular telephone frequencies used worldwide. Numerous diagrams and figures illustrate the author's main points.

The book is not perfect enough to merit five stars. It suffers from minor typos and at least one technical error. Sadly, like many networking books, "Telecommunications Essentials" states that TCP sequence numbers count individual packets. This is false; TCP sequence numbers count bytes of data. Although I am not qualified to critique the accuracy of the phone-related information, I was pleased to see the remainder of the networking material was correct.

"Telecommunications Essentials" is a must-buy if you want to learn about the telecom world. Although the author devotes too many words to describing the use of technology, and future trends, overall the book is excellent.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview of Telecommunications, June 7, 2004

By 

P. Scott Pope "Scott Pope" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source for Communications Fundamentals, Data Networking and the Internet, and Next-Generation Networks (Paperback)

Telecommunications Essentials is a superb introduction to the larger field of telecommunications. The text is a rather lengthy book, with numerous illustrations and an expansive glossary, that can be read from cover to cover. The author does an excellent job of covering virtually every part of the telecom infrastructure, including POTS, fiber optics, residential broadband and wireless.

The real difficulty in writing a book like this is deciding to what depth technical material should reach. The author does do a good job of describing some rather complex subjects without resorting to material requiring a formal technical education. Numerous diagrams aid in the readers understanding of the material. The comprehensive glossary also facilitates the learning process.

Seldom does the author delve into detailed mathematics or the physics of propagation. Interestingly, she does describe coding schemes, which is important. There are some technical mistakes, however. In one very odd example, the author confuses femto- with peta- in which she describes "femtobits per second" Fbps. This is repeated, which makes one question the accuracy of other material and quality of the editing.

Since there is no detailed description of hardware, circuits or semiconductors, this book is not for engineers. Rather if you are an investment professional or management consultant working in the area of telecommunications, it will provide a broad overview of telecommunications technology. The text is packed with the lingo of the industry. It also does a good job of explaining the basics of transmission and architecture. However, since it is geared more towards the marginally technical businessperson, it seems that there would be more mention of the players and the relationship between them such as IXC's, CLEC's, and RBOC's. Moreover, there is little mention of economics, which has been of great interest in the past four years as many notable bankruptcies and over-investment have made headlines.

What it is lacking... It suffers from stale data due to the rapidly evolving telecom space. It appears that much of the information is current as of 2001. This leaves many of the recent developments in wireless out of the book. It appears that the author doesn't yet realize the dominance wireless will have in the marketplace. Moreover, discussion of the growth of fixed line-of-site and NLOS technologies are really not discussed. Also, there is little explanation of HFC. Lastly, there is no sections on OSS or billing, which are quite important as far as the industry is concerned.

Despite the shortcomings, the book was an excellent read. I haven't come across another similar text, so it is quite hard to provide a comparison. The broad coverage makes the book at good starting point for entry into the telecommunications industry. Clearly, to get a better understanding of the specific components of the telecom infrastructure, one must reference other texts.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Cost-effective Path to Basic Telecom Knowledge, August 10, 2006

By 

K. Parmalee "Ubi Libertas habitat, ibi nostra... (Atlanta GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source for Communications Fundamentals, Data Networking and the Internet, and Next-Generation Networks (Paperback)

The book does what it sets out to do - cover the basic underpinnings of modern telecom. Its' age (a scant three years) shows a bit here and there (some of the material obviously predating the book), but for the most part it is accurate and relevant. It is not a technical document, as 600 pages would not be enough to cover the component technology. It mentions occasionally the regulatory issues in telecom, but only in passing; its' primary focus is on business. It makes a good book for the student or someone interested in a telecom career. I might also recommend it to someone whose future plans include sitting through a telecom sales pitch or taking a meeting with telecom lobbyists (at least the part where they might drag in an engineer to talk about some cool new technology).

When I say it has a business focus, I mean that it tries to explain the pros and cons of a particular technology in terms of cost, complexity, and ability to satisfy customer needs. Applying the same criteria, I would say the author has provided a moderately costly (that is, not free), easy to understand, and given the constraints of the business focus, does so rather well.

But the book has a few flaws. Here's what I found -

p.254 - "binary form" should read "dotted decimal form" - which the author uses correctly on the following page.

p.255 - no mention of NAT (Network Address Translation) as a means of saving IPv4 address space. Like the author, I'd like to see IPv6 deployed before I'm too old to care.

p.298 - the phrase "going forward" should be extirpated before the next edition. Also appears on p.312.

p.310 - the author briefly mentions an imminent "talent dearth" as driving the next wave of technical innovation, then trots out some ITAA blurb about half the job vacancies going unfilled each year. Of course, training might also help the problem, if global business can be bothered with such trifles.

p.340 - ANX was purchased by SAIC in 1999 I think, and its' URL as published has been deprecated. On the bright side, I did see a picture of a cute puppy when I went there.

p.354 - in discussing voice chat in games, author uses Sega Dreamcast as example. Only the good die young...

p.429 - author mentions Amsterdam. Sounds like reasonable grounds for a drug test to me! Of course, there's always the excuse of visiting the Van Gogh museum...

p.459 merits a special mention as both the best and worst way to sell a wireless future. Not only will the world be at your fingertips, but it will be trying to gnaw them off. While the author sees a benevolent infrastructure where knowledge of your whereabouts and tastes will be used to respond to your needs quickly and thoroughly, I see a world where your convenience comes at the price of empowering spammers, stalkers, and government goons.

Some of the parts I really enjoyed either because of their novelty or thoughtfulness were as follows:

p.274-6 - talking about the notion of backhauling data, the author touches on a problem analogous to Net Neutrality.

The Internet primer on p.259-80 was maybe the best I've read. Sadly it was too short.

Also enjoyed the circuit-switching chapters 4 and 5.

p.331 - author makes a case for tiered Internet. I'm hopeful we can keep "best effort" Internet service at a quality level sufficient for playing Battlefield 2 for the foreseeable future.

This book is better than three stars, but not quite four. Were its' material a little fresher, it would merit four. I'll check out the website and update this review accordingly.