Customer Reviews

WiMAX Crash Course

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I never wrote any review before. But after reading this book, I feel like writing one to warn other potential buyers against buying this book. I think the author has good marketing sense for himself. He sensed that there is a market for a wimax book and he went ahead writing one, although he doesn't really has the insight/expertise on wimax to deliver a good one. He also cleverly positioned this book as more on Wimax business than technology. I guessed I fell into the trap and bought this book, only to be disppointed by it. The author wrote many crash course books on other topics. I would take it as evidence in support of my judgment above: he is not a real expert on any of these topics (how can one be an expert of so many topics?), but is good at pushing out books that people may be interested in.

As an example: this book has 339 pages, of which 102 pages are acronyms, glossary, and index. Another 95 pages are list of companies in the wimax forum and what these companies do. Can you image - about 60% of the book requires no/mimimal insight/expertise to write.

I work for a chip company in the WiMAX space and we passed this one over for a training piece as there really isn't much on WiMAX in it. The editing and illustration seem a little out of joint as though its some sort of "formula book". Whats really missing is any reference to applications for WiMAX, that is, what is WiMAX to be used for? Who, exactly, would deploy WiMAX and why? The book spends 339 pages and doesn't really get to the point of the applicaitons for WiMAX.

It would have been real helpful if the author had actually interviewed some service providers to see how or where they would deploy WiMAX. Given all the other WiMAX books rushing to market, I give this one 2 stars.

I'm afraid this book just doesn't provide a lot of original insight or guidance on the IEEE specs related to WiMAX. There's way too much anecdotal discussion here. If you're looking for a wireless 101 book this might work, but for a WiMAX book, there's plenty of other sources that do a better job of explaining WiMAX.

This is not at all light reading nor is it a crash course on WiMAX. I never before input any comment on any books. I only felt it important to warn future customer out there. I put the book down after 40min. Seeing that is is mainly made up of pages of source descriptions like company info. No insight on any important items of WiMAX. It is similar to taking the specification yourself and try to make sense of it.

Really dissapointed technology reader.

I have to agree with the other two and one star reviewers. I can't imagine as one 5-star reviewer wrote that this is the best WIMAX book on the market. I read this book on a cross-country flight where I had little better to do with my time. I did learn some things about WIMAX but I found wanting for much more technical detail. There are numerous typographical errors. Some mis-use of technical terms and many regurgitations of technical specifications. In some cases various forms of WIMAX are compared and one form will be described in adequate detail and the second form will be insufficiently described preventing a real comparison.

There is a bewildering volume of filler (as described by others), the glossary is a generic one, not tailored to the book. For example, the glossary defines the term CHL as Chain Home Low - a WWII British low VHF radar. What Chain Home radar has to do with WIMAX is beyond my understanding - I found nothing in the book to explain it.

The author's discussions of Millenials' needs for mobile data communications and how they work in comparison with Generation X and Baby Boomers really belongs in a sociololgy book not in this volume. The applications of WIMAX in the third world were very informative and helped nurture the reader's imagination.

This book did spark my interest to learn more about WIMAX. It also left me with the impression that WIMAX is a large collection of standards using inconsistent frequency allocations probably offering too little too late to compete in the market place against 3G/4G cellphone. I'll look for other references hopefully to overcome this impression.

I bought the used book for $6.00 in DC and it'll be dontated this weekend in San Diego.

There are some specific nuggets that can be gleaned, including an interview of the air interface; however having had additional training in WiMAX, this book falls far short of being a comprehensive course where the reader would be equipped to start working on a WiMAX system.

There is quite a long list of filler material, including lists of companies (some of which no longer exist), and an applications section that is full of maybes.

I would say if you can pick this one up used at a discount, it would be worth it for the few nuggets inside, but don't splurge on a new copy.

I completely agree with a previous reviewer - 60% of this book is acronyms and company reviews. The few pages that are devoted to WiMax are useless and will do nothing to further your understanding of this subject. If you are even remotely temped to purchase this book look at it in a brick and mortar bookstore to see for yourself.

This review was written in May of 2006. Of the three books available on WiMAX (the WiMAX handbook, the WiMAX operator's guide, and this one), this book is the most useful. The only negative to this book is that it devotes a full 90 pages to listing and describing the members of the WiMAX forum, which is either overkill, or book filler, or both.
This glaring flaw is more than made up for, however, by the book's great illustrations, well written prose, and interesting anecdotes about the history and development of 802.16. Because of the overall tone and the amount of information contained in the non-Forum-members chapter, this book definitely earns five stars. If you can only pick one of the three WiMAX books available now, the Crash Course is the one you want.

In the forward of this book the author starts out saying that this book is intended to complement the technology-focused WiMAX books that are already out there. This book, instead focuses on markets, applications, revenue impacts, and integration.

To be sure, it gives a little bit of background technology, where antennas have to be located, things like that. And there is an awful lot of information about equipment manufacturers, trade associations, and acronyms (this is a new industry, a whole new list of acronyms). This is basically where you can go for more information if you wish.

WiMAX offers the potential to completely change a bunch of the communications characteristics in the world. In the developing world there is a need for digital communications. A doctor in a remote hospital in Africa facing something he hasn't seen before and needing information from the web. There's a picture of a telephone central office in remote South Africa that is built into a shipping container. WiMAX offers communications without having to string a lot of wire. There is some 'looking into the future' in this book. I'd have liked to see more.