- Hardcover: 1056 pages
- Publisher: Addison Wesley; 1 edition (22 Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0201398184
- ISBN-13: 978-0201398182
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 19.4 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 646,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Multimedia Communications by Fred Halsall addresses the main subject areas associated with multimedia communications (applications, networks, protocols, and standards) at a level that enables the reader to develop an in-depth understanding of the technical issues associated with this rapidly evolving subject. The book identifies the different types of multimedia applications, quantifies their communication requirements and describes the operation and protocols of the different kinds of networks that are used to support them. These networks include LANs, the Internet and World Wide Web, and home-entertainment networks such as cable and satellite. Multimedia Communicationsis an updated approach to the author's Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems: Fourth Edition set in the context of the increasingly important area of multimedia. It is appropriate for both Computer Science and Electronic Engineering departments.
From the Back Cover
The fast-growing field of multimedia communications involves the use of varied media types (text, images, speech, audio and video) in a wide range of subject areas. These include-
· how to represent the different media types in a digital form;
· the range of compression algorithms that are used with each of these media types;
· the communication requirements associated with the different types of multimedia applications (video telephony/conferencing, electronic mail, interactive TV, electronic commerce, Web TV etc);
· the operation of the different types of communication networks that are used (campus networks and LANs, the Internet and the World Wide Web, switched telephone networks, and home-entertainment networks such as cable and satellite);
· the new communication protocols and standards that have been developed for use with each of these networks to meet the more demanding requirements of multimedia applications.
Multimedia Communications by Fred Halsall addresses all of these subject areas to a depth that enables the reader to build up a thorough understanding of the technical issues associated with this rapidly evolving subject. In addition, the book contains all of the foundation material that is necessary to enable it to be used as a textbook in both computer science and electronic engineering departments. The book is also an essential reference for computing and networking professionals.
Key Features-
· embraces all of the main subject areas associated with multimedia communications in a single textbook;
· extensive use of detailed diagrams and worked examples as an aid to understanding each major topic;
· end of chapter exercises associated with all topics covered.
Fred Halsall is a Professor of Communications Engineering at the University of Wales, Swansea. Professor Halsall has been involved in research and education in the field of computer networking for the past 30 years. He has published over 50 refereed journal and conference papers. His four textbooks include the successful Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems. He is a Fellow of the IEE and a Member of the IEEE.
· how to represent the different media types in a digital form;
· the range of compression algorithms that are used with each of these media types;
· the communication requirements associated with the different types of multimedia applications (video telephony/conferencing, electronic mail, interactive TV, electronic commerce, Web TV etc);
· the operation of the different types of communication networks that are used (campus networks and LANs, the Internet and the World Wide Web, switched telephone networks, and home-entertainment networks such as cable and satellite);
· the new communication protocols and standards that have been developed for use with each of these networks to meet the more demanding requirements of multimedia applications.
Multimedia Communications by Fred Halsall addresses all of these subject areas to a depth that enables the reader to build up a thorough understanding of the technical issues associated with this rapidly evolving subject. In addition, the book contains all of the foundation material that is necessary to enable it to be used as a textbook in both computer science and electronic engineering departments. The book is also an essential reference for computing and networking professionals.
Key Features-
· embraces all of the main subject areas associated with multimedia communications in a single textbook;
· extensive use of detailed diagrams and worked examples as an aid to understanding each major topic;
· end of chapter exercises associated with all topics covered.
Fred Halsall is a Professor of Communications Engineering at the University of Wales, Swansea. Professor Halsall has been involved in research and education in the field of computer networking for the past 30 years. He has published over 50 refereed journal and conference papers. His four textbooks include the successful Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems. He is a Fellow of the IEE and a Member of the IEEE.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Very wide ranging overview of the technologies underpinning multimedia applications and networks. The subtitle states that the book addresses "applications, networks, protocols and standards". And indeed the bulk of the text is devoted to protocols and standards citations, and while knowledge of these developments is very important, the text's presentation is not immediately appealing. Partly this is a stylistic problem and partly a raw material problem. The encyclopaedic composition of the text works against it at times. In particular the mathematical content is trimmed a bit tight in places, hence Hamming functions, Lempel-Siv and the Nyquist theorems are given slimline presentations. Depending on your needs this is either a good thing or bad thing. But in fairness it would have been difficult to stuff in the relevant math and produce all the other material.
The text runs from audio and video compression technologies through to common circuits (the core of the networking component), the internet, broadband, TCP/IP and the WWW. Mobile telephony and associated M-commerce development are not covered in the text, though some of what is involved should be inferrable from the plethora of other systems presented. Each chapter has numerous exercises for students to consider. The book makes a great effort to be comprehensive but in doing so has to limit discussion of issues (no mention of wireless advances for instance). It seemed a bit quirky to introduce the internet three chapters before TCP/IP was discussed. However the general tenor of the book is not grounded in software issues, but engineering ones which may explain the ordering. Also there is a distinct lack of case studies throughout the text and in my experience these are invaluable in assisting student uptake of principles.
In conclusion, I suspect this will become a major reference text in the honourable tradition of numerous similar handbooks. It is so broad ranging that it is really several books in one. There are other texts on the market which are not as long (1000 pages)and are more specific about various technologies but I can't think of one that attempts the same coverage. The index and glossary are excellent.
Format:Hardcover
I agree with the previous review for this book. The scope is as huge as the book, but the level of detail is quite high. Many books of this scope are quite shallow, while specialist books are narrow on a given topic. This reference is quite a feat (as an example if covers TCP keepalive, which is not always addressed in networking texts !). Anyway, this book is a very good reference and I treasure my copy.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Superb book on Multimedia!
12 Feb 2003
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have got this book along with quite a few more on Multimedia. I am VERY happy with this title, I can easily select it as the bext text available to date. The book is quite complete and brings a good number of exercises. The companion web-site allows one to get material which makes it easier to prepare a course based on this title. I have very sucessfully adopted this book on a pos-graduated course on Multimedia Systems (with the aid of additional material as well).
I would recommend Addison Wesley to make this book more broadly available though (I ordered my copy from Amazon.com but for some students it is desirable to find it in local bookstores too).
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Wow, every protocol in one place
29 Nov 2000
Format:Hardcover
This is a very impressive reference.
Sparing you the excessive application information, it provides the logic and call flow of numerous protocols. It contained every protocol I could think of, and then some. If you are engineering or testing/certifying anything from an ATM network, Voice over IP telephone system, Distributed Mail System or Unified Messaging System to a Packet over Sonet or GigE Infrastructure with streaming multimedia, from transmission systems to routing protocols and switch logic, this is the book for you.
This reference book easily gets 5 stars, and replaces several other books with one concise and detailed volume.
Hats off to you Fred, you did an outstanding job!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Beware, looks nice but strange errors abound
18 Aug 2003
Format:Hardcover
After seing the previous reviews giving full marks to this title I felt compelled to make some remarks. The book does cover a great deal of material and should be very useful. However, besides the usaual typos and stuff there are several passages in this book that are really bad since they are nowhere near a correct description of the topic. For example sections 3.3.4 and 3.3.5 on LZ and LZW coding. Totally mixed up... (They dont even mention that there are TWO very different LZ algorithms ie LZ77 and LZ78, they just describe some strange mixture of them without any foundation in reality...). Same thing on pg 883-884 with regards to recursive and iterative name resolution. Wrong, plain and simple. Compare their description to any DataComm textbook and you'll see. However these parts are written informatively and with figures and examples making it all very believable. And this is the big problem for me. How can I be sure that other parts of the book, which cover material I am not so familiar with, does not contain more of this false and erroneous descriptions....
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