Blurb

Communications systems now shape almost every part of modern life, from mobile phones and broadband internet to broadcasting, industrial networks, machine-to-machine services, and emerging data-relay applications. Yet for many managers, decision-makers, systems engineers, project staff, business analysts, and technically engaged users, the subject remains difficult to approach without being drawn into specialist mathematics or product-specific detail.

This book provides a clear, reliable, and technically sound introduction to the principles that underpin modern communications systems. Written for non-specialists, but useful also to engineers and students seeking a conceptual overview, it explains how communications systems work without oversimplifying the ideas that matter.

Rather than serving as a design manual or catalogue of current technologies, the book focuses on enduring principles. It begins with the basic structure of a communications system and then follows the signal from source to destination, explaining source coding, encryption, channel coding, modulation, multiplexing, multiple access, transmitters, receivers, cables, radio propagation, and antennas. It then shows how these building blocks are brought together in communications networks, from simple modes of operation and switching through to local-area networks, wide-area networks, and internetworking.

No prior knowledge beyond high-school mathematics is assumed. Each concept is introduced from first principles and developed in a way that is accessible, balanced, and technically accurate.

By demystifying the elements of communications systems and showing how they fit together, this book equips readers to understand, evaluate, and discuss both today’s networks and the systems that will follow. It is a practical conceptual foundation for anyone who needs to engage confidently with communications technology without becoming a specialist communications engineer.