Mobile Communications

The mobile communications market remains the fastest growing segment of the global computing and communications business. The rapid progress and convergence of the field has created a need for new techniques and solutions, knowledgeable professionals to create and implement them, and courses to teach the background theory and technologies while pointing the way towards future trends.

In this book Jochen Schiller draws on his extensive experience to provide a thorough grounding in mobile communications, describing the state of the art in industry and research while giving a detailed technical background to the area. The book covers all the important aspects of mobile and wireless communications from the Internet to signals, access protocols and cellular systems, emphasizing the key area of digital data transfer. It uses a wide range of examples and other teaching aids, making it suitable for self-study and university classes.

The book begins with an overview of mobile and wireless applications, covering the history and market, and providing the foundations of wireless transmission and Medium Access Control. Four different groups of wireless network technologies are then covered: telecommunications systems, satellite systems, broadcast systems and wireless LAN. The following chapters about the network and transport layers address the impairments and solutions using well-known Internet protocols such as TCP/IP in a mobile and wireless environment. The book concludes with a chapter on technologies supporting applications in mobile networks, focusing on the Web and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Each chapter concludes with a set of exercises for self-study (with solutions available to instructors) and references to standards, organizations and research work related to the topic.

New to this edition

• Integration of higher data rates for GSM (HSCSD, GPRS)
• New material on 3rd generation (3G) systems with in-depth discussion of UMTS/W-CDMA
• Addition of the new WLAN standards for higher data rates: 802.11a, b, g and HiperLAN2
• Extension of Bluetooth coverage to include IEEE 802.15, profiles and applications
• Increased coverage of ad-hoc networking and wireless profiled TCP
• Migration of WAP 1.x and i-mode towards WAP 2.0

Jochen Schiller is head of the Computer Systems and Telematics Working Group in the Institute of Computer Science, Freie Universitat Berlin, and a consultant to several companies in the networking and communication business. His research includes mobile and wireless communications, communication architectures and operating systems for embedded devices, and QoS aspects in communication systems.