Cellular Communications Explained: From Basics to 3G [Kindle Edition]

I was looking very much forward to this book. The subject is broad and a good overview book is really hard to write. I was especially interested in this book because it doesn't only cover GSM, but also looks at the CDMA technology and explains some of the differences. The 3G part is not just WCDMA (or UMTS) but also the CDMA2k. A book covering all these subjects could be thousands of pages, and Ian Poole did it in less than 200. Impressive.

It started good! The first four chapters cover the real basics of cellular communication. The authors finds a balance between the detail and the overview. I was impressed by the start... except for the writing style. The style was very 'engineering' and felt the book could use some additional editing. That would make it easier to read.

In chapter five (analogue systems), the speed increases a bit, but still relative easy to follow. Chapter six covers the GSM standard. Here, I felt the author was going way too fast and covers too much details. Any beginning reader would be lost by the short explanation of the radio channels and their acronyms. Additional pictures of how calls would be set-up would really improve the book, but they are not there. I've got a background in GSM and could still follow, if I wouldn't, I would be lost. And...

Chapter seven/eight covers NA TDMA and cdmaOne. The author continues with the amount of detail he used in the earlier chapter. Giving the names of all radio channels, frame formats, but doing it such a speed that its really hard to follow. The same was true for the CDMA2k and UMTS (WCDMA) chapter: too much detail, too little overview, too fast, too much 'engineering' writing.

I found chapter eleven (position location) interesting again, it went in a slower speed. The final chapter (12) covers conformance and IOT, but I couldn't understand why this chapter was included in this book. It seems to not fit there at all! It could better have been removed.

All in all, I find the idea of this book good, the start was good, but then the author was kind-of lost. I wasn't sure anymore whether the book was for beginners (chap 1-4) or for people who have more of a telecom background (chap 5-10).

Conclusion. I wouldn't recommend this book as an overview book to people new to the subject. Instead, better pick up one technology and read that (e.g. the excellent GSM Networks from Gunnar Heine). This book is a good overview of the different standards though, if you are looking for that, then this is an option. Good... but not great.