The Wireless Handbook
A Practical Guide to Wireless Technologies
Book
Paperback/Softback
250 pages
978-1-57820-107-5 (ISBN)
Description
Wireless technology encompasses a broad range of services for voice and data, from cellular phones and DoCoMo to Bluetooth, WiFi, broadband fixed wireless, and many other variations in technology and application. Each flavor of wireless has its own advantages, limitations, and unique technical specs -- ensuring confusion as systems evolve and new services are unvelled. One crucial advantage of wireless systems is the potential to provide high speed connections that can be implemented quickly over large geographical areas without a large investment in physical plant. This book provides everything readers need to know to understand wireless voice and data communications technologies and their impact on enterprise and consumer markets. Current and upcoming technologies promise to change the way businesses work internally by freeing workers from the wired network, as well as by unleashing potential markets for new services for mobile professionals and consumers. The author introduces basic concepts such as radio frequency (RF), cell sites, and switching.
He also covers issues such as site acquisition, tower selection and construction, design of the fixed network, and interconnection to the Public Switched Telephone Network. The author carefully delineates the complex regulatory processes that affect all wireless service providers. This complete treatment of every major aspect of wireless explains both emerging wireless internet access (WAP, Bluetooth, wireless data, etc.) and wireless broadband access (LMDS, MMDS) and their prospects in the marketplace.
He also covers issues such as site acquisition, tower selection and construction, design of the fixed network, and interconnection to the Public Switched Telephone Network. The author carefully delineates the complex regulatory processes that affect all wireless service providers. This complete treatment of every major aspect of wireless explains both emerging wireless internet access (WAP, Bluetooth, wireless data, etc.) and wireless broadband access (LMDS, MMDS) and their prospects in the marketplace.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-57820-107-5 (9781578201075)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Keith Dawson is currently Senior Editor at COMMWEB (www.commweb.com), and was the founder of Call Center News Service. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Content
1. Introduction Defining the wireless universe; what we mean when we talk about the wireless industry; the key differences between wired telecom and wireless access; 2. Origins Background on the history of wireless; what was planned vs. what actually happened; variations in national policies creating different arenas for different services to take root; timelines. 3. The Standards & The Government Regulators - Start with spectrum - who allocates it, what it's used for, how much there is and why it's so important (and why it costs so much). - Then, the protocols we're working with: GSM TDMA CDMA GPRS EDGE Wideband CDMA UWC-136 CDMA 2000 Bluetooth 80211.x (b, g, etc.)/Wi-Fi OFDM I-Mode SMS (There are others; anything notable will be explained.) 4. Phone services - "POWS" - "Plain Old Wireless Service" - how cellular services work, what protocols they run on, how the industry is structured. - Carriers & resellers. Key business drivers; how they make money, why they are in such a tight squeeze for revenue. What are their prospects for the future. What are they committed to as far as new services or expanded versions of standard services. - Handsets - who makes them, what features they sport, what the driving technologies are for 2002-2005. 5. Wireless Web - What it is, who offers it. - Why it's limited, and what that means for content providers who want to derive revenue from offering services. The very limited revenue picture for advanced services in general. - Is the handset phone the proper venue for data access - pros and cons. - Bandwidth considerations. 6. PDAs - The Wireless Data Portals? - Remote email access (RIM, Palm, Handspring, etc.). - More on the wireless web - will it take off with better devices available for consumers? - Sports/stocks/news: why the standard trio of data services aren't going to attract consumers and fill revenue buckets. - Short-messaging & Internet-based instant messaging - the death of the pager? Or the death of the as a separate instrument? - Finding the right form factor for portable data terminals. 7. Wireless LANs - Unhooking The Enterprise - What specific advantages does going wireless bring to the enterprise? - Those troublesome early adopters - they can be an IT manager's nightmare. - Unwiring peripherals; creating "personal area networks"; tracking people's whereabouts and moving data as they move. - Specific pros and cons on several key wireless networking topologies. 8. Telematics - By some estimates the fastest-growing segment of the wireless industry. - GPS; satellite radio; location services and OnStar. - Car diagnostics and maintenance alerts. - Hands-free wireless calls; voice-activated access to Internet data. - Relationship between auto-based carrier market and the "regular" carriers in the fight for ownership of the customer and hence, revenue. - Analog vs. digital: trying to create a nationwide footprint for car-based services. 9. Consumer Services - Location based applications that pinpoint the consumer and match it with geographically viable commerce opportunities. - M-commerce apps like EZ Pass, Mobil Speedpass, and others that integrate existing billing relationships with new wireless technology. 10. Security and M-Commerce - Digital signatures; verification services; funds transfer systems. - Companies that certify the integrity of signatures and transfers. - Extending traditional notions of organizational "firewall" level security to wireless - why wireless will (almost) always lie outside the perimeter. 11. 2.5G Vs. 3G - The Great Debate - Exploring the differences between what carriers are capable of rolling out in Europe, Japan and the US. - Variations in consumer expectations among different populations; how this will change when common standards are in place for transferring data between networks worldwide. - Timetables for what services are coming from what carriers in what regions. 12. Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi - The Other Great Debate - Are they really incompatible? Why the gap between expectation and reality with Bluetooth? - Likelihood that interference issues will disappear and that the market will create a niche for Bluetooth in PDAs, phones and other handheld devices, with Wi-Fi taking the lion's share of networking traditional PCs and extensions like laptops. 13. Appendices - Industry statistics. - Vendor listings.