"Telecommunications and Data Communications Handbook" by Ray Horak is a survey of telecom and datacom technologies and services. The book begins with basic concepts and definitions and marches through media and voice, data and video systems, networks, standards and protocols. Also covered are broadband LAN, MAN and WAN technologies such as 3G, 802.11g/n, ADSL, BPL, CWDM and DWDM, PON and WiMAX. Horak devotes the final chapter to tracking the origins, evolution and current status of U.S. telecom regulation through key legislative, judicial and agency events. It also includes a helpful list of more than 1,000 industry acronyms and an index.
Although the book is written for a reasonably astute engineers, analysts, regulators, attorneys and other telecom professionals, Horak develops each topic in a commonsense and patient manner so it is informative and useful to a student or relative newcomer to telecom.
Among the many specific topics are the following:
T/E/J-Carrier Systems
Fiber Optics
Wireless
Broadband over Power Line (BPL)
Email and Instant Messaging
Storage Area Networks (SANs)
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): ADSL, HDSL, SHDSL, SDSL and VDSL
CATV Networks and Modems
VoIP including IP-PBX and IP Centrex
SIP vs. H.323
A companion to this book is "Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary" written by Horak in 2007. It has more than 4,600 terms useful for understanding voice, data, video and multimedia communications system and network technologies, applications and regulation.
Contact Mark at Markjsimon@comcast.net.
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