"Providing a holistic overview of the fundamental ideas underlying the interactions between communication layers and cross-layer communications, this book will help specialists in any one of the layers to appreciate the other layers. The information is presented systematically with fundamental and intuitive treatment of the functions of a network, which are usually treated compartmentally and in such expansive detail that the holistic view is obscured. The book is built around the concepts and engineering principles used in wireless communication systems and networks. The author first breaks down the complicated wireless communications system into different segments, such as layered protocol design, communication at the physical-layer, MAC/link layer and higher-layers, the information-theoretic principles used in wireless systems, wireless system models and their limitations and regulation of the radio spectrum. The book provides an intuitive explanation of the concepts used in each of these segments by exploring the reasons why some design decisions were made. It looks at what the alternatives could have been, what the engineering opportunities are, as well as offering advice in pursuing optimized system design. It focuses on how the ideas used in different segments are inter-related. Instead of listing the topics as they appear in a layered system, this book will introduce increasingly complex models for wireless communications and illustrate the main concepts that can be used to solve the problems implied by the models. The novel way of system-level treatment that this book provides enables researchers to relate their area of expertise to the other segments of the wireless system and obtain a broadened perspective. It can be used as a stand-alone guide, but also as a compendium to the texts that cover different system parts in details which are recommended in the further reading at the end of each chapter. The sequence and layout of the chapters supports quick and easy grasp of the basic concepts, evolving the chapters from simple to very complex topics and techniques"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.