Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The final chapter of "Adaptation and Cross Layer Design in Wireless Networks" reminds the reader why this book matters: "Global networking and mobile computing are two of the biggest trends in computing today." Recent reports confirm this: "half of all new connections to the internet will come from a phone in 2009" and "Google's mobile traffic reflects these milestones"
Many aspects of wireless networking are crucial to user success in the mobile and wireless world. Fortunately, for the reader, more than three dozen experts have collaborated and contributed to this book in order to bring clarity and coherence to this timely topic.
The 2nd chapter ("A Survey of Medium Access Control Protocols for Wireless Local and Ad Hoc Networks") provides an excellent overview. Figure 2.23 is a great visual representation and classification of WLAN MAC protocols. The chapter ends with a long list of acronyms and their meanings. These are helpful navigational guides for developing a wireless learning strategy.
Early chapters cover cellular (Chap 3 - "Adaptive Scheduling for Beyond 3G Cellular Networks" and Chap 4 - "Adaptive Resource Allocation in CCDMA Cellular Wireless Mobile Networks under Time-Varying Traffic".) After this, the writing turns mainly to computer network topics, but generally to material related to mobile users in a digital world.
Chapter 5 - "Utility-Based Bandwidth Adaptation for Multimedia Wireless Networks" - characterizes the unfolding evolution of today's wireless networks and why adaptation matters:
"Wireless services are evolving from the traditional voice service to a wide range of multimedia services, including data, voice and video. Different multimedia services over wireless networks have different bandwidth requirements. For example, some applications like telephone call and video conference require strict end-to-end performance guarantees. ... On the other hand, applications such as file transfer and video streaming can adapt their bandwidth to various network loads since they can tolerate certain delays." p 150
I particularly enjoyed three chapters in the central part of the book covering application scenarios (Vehicular Wireless and Sensor Networks) that were science fiction just a short while ago - yet viable technologies today.
Chap 14 underscores why this book is needed and the meaning to the title: "In IEEE 802.11 WLANs, the MAC layer protocol is the main element that determines the efficiency of the wireless communication system. ...Many adaptive schemes have been shown to improve the network performance." Elsewhere, this chapter notes, "For a given wireless LAN environment, the solution to maximize network performance is usually a careful combination of several approaches ... Apart from MAC/PHY ... joint adaptation with higher layers is critical for performance optimization. This approach is usually called the cross layer design in wireless networks."
Chapter 15 ("Tunable Security Services for Wireless Networks") finishes strongly with the ever-present subject of security. This chapter adds a new twist to an old discussion: the question is not whether you need security, but choosing what kind, how much, and at what cost.
This comprehensive book addresses the theory, architecture, and practical protocols and applications of wireless networks. Chapters could comfortably be read in a stand-alone, out-of-order sequence or as part of a complete curriculum. Standards are covered in a succinct fashion if they exist (e.g. referencing 802.11 standards such as DCF) and uncharted territory is mapped out nicely. For instance, Chap 11 - "Routing in Wireless Self-organizing Networks" - covers areas where technologies and applications are developing far faster than standards. The authors are keen to rally future efforts: "other important issues have great influence on the routing methodology and must receive more attention from the network community..."
This book's introduction indicates that it covers "adaptation at the data link layer, network layer, and application layer." Another book by the same editor covers adaptation at the physical layer: "Adaptive Signal Processing in Wireless Communications (Adaptation in Wireless Communications)"
This book is not just at the cutting edge, it is cutting the edge.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Adaptation and Cross Layer Design in Wireless Networks (Electrical Engineering and Applied Signal Processing)Adaptive techniques play a key role in modern wireless communication systems. The concept of adaptation is emphasized in the Adaptation in Wireless Communications Series through a unified framework across all layers of the wireless protocol stack ranging from the physical layer to the application layer, and from cellular systems to next-generation wireless networks. Adaptation and Cross Layer Design in Wireless Networks is devoted to adaptation in the data link layer, network layer, and application layer. The book presents state-of-the-art adaptation techniques and methodologies, including cross-layer adaptation, joint signal processing, coding and networking, selfishness in mobile ad hoc networks, cooperative and opportunistic protocols, adaptation techniques for multimedia support, self -organizing routing, and tunable security services. It presents several new theoretical paradigms and analytical findings which are supported with various simulation and experimental results.
Adaptation in wireless communications is needed in order to achieve high capacity and ubiquitous communications. The current trend in wireless communication systems is to make adaptation dependent upon the state of the relevant parameters in all layers of the system. Focusing on simplified cross layer design approaches, this volume describes advanced techniques such as adaptive resource management, adaptive modulation and coding, 4G communications, QoS, diversity combining, and energy and mobility aware MAC protocols. The first volume in the series, Adaptive Signal Processing in Wireless Communications (cat no.46012) covers adaptive signal processing at the physical layer.
Click here for more information about Adaptation and Cross Layer Design in Wireless Networks (Electrical Engineering and Applied Signal Processing)
