Reviews and Abstracts [review of Wireless Communications by Andreas F. Molisch; 2005]

This book is written as a textbook for both classroom use and as a reference by researchers and professionals. It provides a rare view of wireless communications that is very well grounded in electromagnetics. There is also a companion Web site, http://www.wiley.com/go/molisch, that contains lecture slides, additional exercises, a solution manual, and appendices containing additional technical material and mathematical derivations of selected theorems. The book is broken into five parts. Part 1 provides a broad survey and introduction to wireless communications systems. Part 2, entitled "Wireless Propagation Channels," contains chapters on RF propagation fundamentals, statistical channel modeling, wideband and directional channel characterization, a survey of channel-modeling techniques, channel sounding, and antennas. Part 3, "Transceivers and Signal Processing," contains chapters on practical wireless transceivers, pulse and digital modulation, demodulation and bit-error-rate analysis, diversity, channel coding, speech coding, and equalization. Part 4, entitled "Multiple Access and Advanced Transceiver Schemes," contains chapters on the principles of cellular networks, spread-spectrum systems, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), and multi-antenna systems. Part 5, "Standardized Wireless Systems," concludes the book with chapters surveying GSM, IS-95, CDMA 2000, WCDMA, and standards for wireless local-area networks. The book is an extremely comprehensive textbook that will appeal to students and researchers in both the communications and electromagnetics disciplines.