Practical Data Communications

With the accelerating growth in the use of computers and PCs in the workplace, the practical aspects of designing and operating data communications systems have become increasingly more complex. Practical Data Communications provides the needed background and fills in the gaps for the many who must tackle this vital technology with little basic training. It does so in clear and precise terms and with a hands-on approach to network design and management aimed at ensuring the optimal implementation of data communications.

While laying down the theoretical principles of electronic data communications, the book assumes no particular technical knowledge other than basic electricity and elementary algebra. It is a tutorial work that readily initiates the reader at the level of bits, bit sequences, and bauds in its introduction to the basic concepts of data signals and their electrical nature.

This book serves the practitioner. Its wide discussion of data network enhancements and design is built upon a thorough introduction of generic and specific data networks, focusing at length on transmission limitations, protocols and how they work, and questions of standards and related topics. The book covers local area networks (LANs) based on IEEE and ANSI standards, and wide area networks (WANs) built around TCP/IP, SNA, and OSI related protocols. It also covers VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite networks for data connectivity, and frame relay and SMDS for the interconnection of LANs over long distances.

The reader will share the benefits of the author's extensive experience, detailing actual implementation methods for enterprise networks, considering particular corporate and government requirements, describing wiring concepts and specific models, and providing comparisons between different systems in terms of performance and complexity.

Throughout, data communication is incorporated into the bigger picture of telecommunications, including the public switched digital network (PSDN), questions of high-capacity transmission media such as fiber optics, wire pair, and microwave and satellite communications. There is emphasis on the trend toward the integration of data, voice, and image into a single telecommunication system—popularly termed multimedia communications.

Practical Data Communications is an indispensable guide for the engineering student, computer scientist, data network technician, and MIS/telecommunications manager.

From ASCII to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and from data modems to satellite links, this book provides both an overview of data communications and a comprehensive guide to its practical aspects. It demystifies buzz words; cuts through the jungle of hardware, protocols, and standards; and lays down a solid framework for understanding the elements that facilitate interconnectivity.

This timely and much needed resource can be used in a number of ways:

• As a tutorial that fleshes out the basics and builds an understanding of data communications from the ground up
• As a basic reference to precise terminology, applications, and practices within the field
• As an overview of current technologies and future trends in the wider context of telecommunications
• As a user's guide to the implementation of the technology in a way that will promote effective and optimal use of data communications over networks

Practical Data Communications is an indispensable guide for telecommunications managers, technicians, network managers, computer scientists and programmers, and anyone involved with the operation and design of data communications systems. As a senior-level textbook, it helps students understand the underlying principles of networks and to appreciate exactly where this technology is leading us.

About the author

ROGER L. FREEMAN, founder and principal of Roger Freeman Associates, is a veteran of more than 45 years in telecommunication system design and operation. He has engineered and managed large-scale digital telecommunication networks involving a wide variety of transmission media, including microwave LOS, satellite, wire pair, coaxial cable, and fiber optics. A senior life member of the IEEE, Mr. Freeman is a frequent lecturer and prolific author with more than 25 articles published in international technical journals. His previous Wiley titles include Reference Manual for Telecommunications Engineering, Telecommunication Transmission Handbook, Telecommunication System Engineering, and Radio System Design for Telecommunications.