Browse Books

Reviewer: L F. Pau

In a nutshell, this volume is about the evolution of public wireless communication technologies and their future. Whereas most books describe the state of the art and history, this one looks forward to technologies and standards yet to be deployed widely; therefore, it is of significant aand lasting value. The book covers third-generation mobile communication systems, in particular wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), with its next phase, high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), leading toward its next stage, HSPA+ (Release 7), and its long-term evolution (Release 8). This volume is the fourth edition, and includes further details of HSDPA, Release 7, and Release 8. Its purpose is to allow for coexistence in many frequency bands with older standards, while pushing for deeper integration, leading to reduced terminal size/cost at a much higher level of performance. As envisaged, long-term evolution (LTE) should be optimized for the packet-switched domain (and thus Internet), and allow for uplink/downlink of 50/100 Mbps, exceeding by a significant factor present-day fixed digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable access performance (with the exception of direct optical fiber access). Chapters 1 to 4 provide an introduction to third-generation services. Chapter 3 covers unique third-generation aspects: parameters, performance, spreading, multipath reception, power control, and different handover schemes. This is followed by background information about WCDMA standards, with different geographical variants. Chapters 5 to 7 are of special interest for designers, presenting the detailed WCDMA standards for radio access networks, the physical layer, and the radio interface protocols. They are all based on the universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) architecture and interfaces for traffic, its control/signaling, and management. Chapter 7 shows the richness of the WCDMA and HSPA evolution by covering media access control (MAC), radio link control, packet data, broadcast control, and multimedia multicast service. Chapters 8 to 11 deal with utilization and performance, and are of special interest for operators and users. They focus on radio network dimensioning and planning, radio resource management (including intra- and inter-frequency handovers to the global system for mobile communications (GSM)), packet switching, and physical layer performance. Chapter 11 gives very useful details and calculations for cell coverage, downlink cell capacity measurements in trials, signal and noise figures, and performance enhancements via smart antenna and multiuser detection. Chapters 12 to 15, of special interest for future designs and network choices, focus on HSDPA, HSDPA+, and their LTE evolution in the third-generation standards: Releases 6, 7, and 8. They present the basics of HSDPA , and then high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) with its variants and consequences on terminals, and the multimedia broadcast multicast service. In Section 14.8, there is a noteworthy benchmark comparison between HSDPA and the digital TV standard DVB-H. Section 15.7 is a special discussion on wireless voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) enhancements. Finally, chapters 16 to 18 describe the almost finalized UTRAN LTE with time-division duplex (TDD) modes and remaining radio-frequency design challenges: interference and multimode/band. This volume has matured to become a highly recommended and indispensable reference for actual work by network and terminal manufacturers, service providers, and regulators. This is due to its rigorous, concise, and systematic presentation of data and formulas, and its belief that only a deep understanding of the WCDMA interface allows for successful business practices by all parties involved. The book does not just present the standards, but also matches them to architectures, protocols, and performance, to achieve design integration in networks and terminals. Although over a dozen authors contributed to the different chapters, Holma and Toskala succeeded in achieving a cohesive style with good cross-referencing. Online Computing Reviews Service