The Essential Guide to Telecommunications - Softcover

Dodd, Annabel Z.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130142956 ISBN 13: 9780130142955

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR, 1999

Synopsis

In today's "wired" world, practically everyone needs to understand telecommunications. With The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Second Edition you can -- even if you have no technical background at all. Leading consultant Annabel Z. Dodd covers all the fundamental concepts you need to know to understand the industry -- and make smarter buying decisions. This new Second Edition has been updated with up to the minute coverage of today's most critical issues, including the technologies and leading-edge applications associated with digital convergence. Dodd covers the powerful new roles played by IP networking in telephony, streaming media, call centers, PBXs, and beyond. She introduces cable modems, xDSL, and other high-speed Internet access alternatives; reviews frame relay, ATM, and ISDN; and offers up-to-the-minute insight into the telecom industry's new competitive landscape. Along the way, you'll master all the basics of telecommunications, including: the differences between analog and digital signals; what bandwidth is; why protocols and architectures matter; what multiplexing and compression are; the role of the public network; the evolution of the Internet; and much more.

About this title

Review:

The telecommunications industry encompasses hundreds of different technologies, which in turn have spawned many trade names, jargon terms, and legal definitions. Those looking for a comprehensive introduction to the technologies, laws, and marketing programs that govern telecommunications need to read The Essential Guide to Telecommunications.

Author Annabel Z. Dodd begins by pointing out that telecommunications technologies have everything to do with signals moving over media. She then goes on to catalog some of the various kinds of signals and media, covering traditional switched telephone service, dedicated lines, public branch exchanges (PBXs), and automatic call distributors (ACDs) along the way. After that foray into technology, she gets into the U.S. telecommunications business environment, focusing heavily on the federal breakup of AT&T in 1984 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. She then explains additional technologies; data communications and the Internet-ISDN, Frame Relay, and analog modems all get attention. The author also pays plenty of attention to wireless solutions, including satellite communications.

Unlike Newton's Telecom Dictionary (which remains an excellent resource), this book can be successfully read from start to finish by a reader with practically no telecommunications knowledge at the outset. Read and understand--that's what good technical books, like this one, enable you to do. --David Wall

From the Author:

A non-technical guide to the industry

The issues and topics covered in "The Essential Guide to Telecommunications" are based on the concerns of end-user clients that I work with in my consulting practice. I also rely heavily on feedback from adults, all of whom work in telecommunications, who take my classes at Northeastern University. They include staff that manage their frim's telecommunications systems and people that work with or for telephone companies. My book is based on practical, everyday issues that carriers, customers and people that work with telecommunications firms need to understand.

Over 125,000 copies of the first two editions of "The Essential Guide to Telecommunications" were sold. Moreover, it has been translated into ten languages worldwide including Chinese, Russian and Portuguese. The Wharton School, MIT and other major universities and schools worldwide use it in courses on telecommunications. In addition, telephone companies, consulting firms, law firms and financial services companies have purchased my book for employees who need to understand telecommunications but want a book with non-technical descriptions of technology.

Along with explanations of technology, I have included examples of applications and historical highlights. I explain how the industry evolved and the technology changed. The stories and descriptions that accompany the technical details are key to the book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0130142956
• ISBN 13: 9780130142955
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 365