The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications

The standard reference for telecommunications in business, now fully revised and updated

Telecommunications has undergone a profound transformation in the past decade, with more rapid-fire technological innovation just over the horizon. The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications provides you with the hands-on specifics you need to understand each of these technologies, all in easy-to-follow language that anyone with a professional or personal interest in the subject can quickly understand.

This newest edition of James Harry Green's indispensable industry reference--updated to encompass newer technologies from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to wireless--provides top-to-bottom explanations of all aspects of telecommunications along with key interrelationships between telecom's myriad components. It's all here:

• Voice and data fundamentals
• Pulse code modulation
• Outside plant
• Structured wiring
• Local area network principles
• Circuit-switching concepts
• Packet technologies
• Fiber optics
• Microwave radio
• Satellite transmission
• Cellular and PCS radio systems
• International Telecommunications Union standards
• Digital cable transmission systems
• PBX
• Centrex
• Automatic call distribution
• Voice processing
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Frame relay
• Internetworking and convergence
• Network management systems

For precision...for readability...for state-of-the-art technology...The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications stands alone. It remains the must-have reference manual for anyone involved in, or just beginning to learn about, the telecommunications industry.

The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications represents many books to many people. For management professionals who are given essential telecommunications responsibilities yet little training, or salespersons who need to understand the environment into which their products fit, it explains telecommunications in terms that are detailed yet understandable. For technical professionals who need to gain familiarity with new areas quickly, it promises comprehensive, accurate information and research. In fact, all professionals or students who need an up-to-date telecommunications reference will appreciate its ease of use and completeness of information.

This all-encompassing book covers everything that matters in telecommunications. From the regulated early monopoly of AT&T to the polyglot of service providers today, the wireless technologies of today versus the emerging wireless technologies of tomorrow, the move from legacy network technologies to metropolitan Ethernet and Multiprotocol label switching--The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications will explain the essentials of the past, present, and future of telecommunications.

Look to this latest edition of James Harry Green's classic industry reference for updated information on new and emerging products, including:

• New chapters on topics including access technologies, softswitches, IP networks, Metropolitan Area Networks, and more
• E-commerce strategies to effectively utilize the business-to-business aspects of the Internet
• How new data applications are driving the convergence of voice and data services
• Developments in data protocol compatibility and standardization
• An exhaustive dictionary of more than 640 acronyms--everything from 3G (Third-Generation Cellular) to XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol)
• A glossary with concise definitions of more than 500 terms used in the book

In addition, The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications goes beyond predictions to supply knowledgeable projections of where telecommunications is headed. Discussions of VoIP, wireless, packet switching, multimedia over cable, pending regulatory moves, and more help to prepare you for a complex future that is just around the corner.

We're in the midst of an enormously exciting telecommunications explosion, one that allows us to instantly contact business associates across town as easily as those across the globe. Yet with this ease of communication comes an unprecedented complexity and answers that aren't always easy to find let alone understand. The Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications, Fifth Edition, brings the entire world of telecommunications within your reach, giving you the questions you must ask along with the answers to those questions--all in the accessible, easy-to-understand style that has made it today's landmark telecommunications reference.