Book details of 'The Future of Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Library,)'

Title	The Future of Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Library,)
Author(s)	William Webb
ISBN	1580532489
Language	English
Published	April 2001
Publisher	Artech House

---

Back to shelf Computer networks
Amazon.com info for The Future of Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Library,)

Score:

Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'The Future of Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Library,)':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Predicting the future in the technical world is a dangerous business, particularly in a rapidly changing field like communications. Yet the author attempts to do so not just in the short term, but over a range of twenty years. If nothing else, you have to admire his courage. And Webb does know the dangers: he points out, in chapter one, the foolish predictions that have been made over the years. But he also demonstrates the importance; to business, public policy, and other endeavors; of prediction, and the possibility of achieving educated guesses if you make the right kind of forecast. Part two examines the factors that drive future development. Chapter two starts at the end--the end user, the final customer, and the desires of the public market. The material is generic, and possibly too vague to be of use in prognostication, but does point out some areas for consideration. Discussion of the great number and variety of technologies involved in the general field of wireless communications makes chapter three rather lengthy. Part three looks at practical constraints and limits on future development. Chapter four surveys technical restrictions, but is confined to the traditional contention model, without considering the benefits of cooperative models arising out of data networks. Social, financial, and other restraints are discussed in chapter five, although the view of standards as a limiting factor seems odd in an era when de facto norms seem to spring up in mere months. The review of organizations, in chapter six, seems a bit weak. Part four is the heart of the book, or, rather, hearts: bets are hedged by providing a number of views of the future. Chapter seven presents a view of how the future might have looked to an analyst of twenty years ago. A "technologist's" perspective sees more demand for telecom, but provides contradictory views of using it to bring the world to us (video-on-demand and home shopping) as opposed to going out into the world (the "day in the life" scenario). A "bold" vista sees a growth in some forms of telecom in the near future. A list of various standards and potential applications makes up a realization of the information society. "Learning from the Past" is an unintentionally ironic title, since the scenario that starts the chapter uses applications which all exist already (apart from a software operator that handles calls for the user). Chapter twelve discusses some minor problems with developing technologies. The "Communications Cocktail" is perhaps the most realistic attempt to view the future: although I suspect it is a bit short-sighted, there is an acknowledgement that one telecom solution will not fit all. An "official" prognostication from the UK reads much like every government analysis you've ever seen. A summary of the predictions is given in chapter fifteen, but the appraisal (which is reasonable) comes in sixteen. The material is repeated, with different structures, in chapter seventeen. I suspect that the predictions made in the book will seem very conservative when viewed twenty years hence. At the same time, the text does provide a very good overview of the immediate situation with regard to mobile communications and the developments coming onstream. For the telecommunications manager, this work is a reasonable, if verbose, guide to the next few years in the wireless world. The longer term will probably be significantly different. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2001
Add my review for The Future of Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Library,)