Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks

Grant Willey writes "Deploying a License-Free Wireless Wide Area Network? Want to learn the intricate details from an authoritative expert who has personally designed and installed hundreds of license-free outdoor broadband wireless networks? This book isn't just for WISPs (wireless Internet service providers), this book is for you!" Read on for Grant's review of Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks from Cisco Press. Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks author Jack Unger pages 352 publisher Cisco Press rating 8 reviewer Grant Willey ISBN 1587050692 summary This is an information packed publication designed to assist you with the planning, installation, and maintenance of wireless WAN's.

This information packed publication is designed to assist you with the planning, installation, and maintenance of wireless WANs. You'll receive help with many commonly faced deployment challenges including site surveying, antenna evaluation and selection, overcoming real-world obstacles, solving noise and interference problems, maximizing available bandwidth, and working safely with tower structures and wireless gear. And, if you're presently pursuing a wireless technology certification such as Planet3's CWNA, CWNI, CWSP, etc, this book isn't written as a study guide, but it does provide vitally important information to help you earn these respected certifications.

Whether you're an experienced LAN/WAN professional or are new to the field and looking to "get your feet wet," this book will enrich your knowledge and possibly open new doors of opportunity for you. Being an experienced LAN/WAN professional with 19 years of experience and dozens of certifications, I thank the author for not filling the book with dry-humored jokes, useless "real life" experiences, and confusing diagrams/ illustrations. This book is grammatically correct, technically accurate, focused, and very helpful whether you're pursuing wireless certification or not. Beginner and experienced networking professionals will appreciate the "vendor neutral" content of the book. The book is published by Cisco Press, but contains no specific references to CISCO brand hardware/software. I believe this makes the information even more useful to technicians and installers who work with varying vendor equipment. While many concepts and methodologies are the same, this book is true to its name and offers little help in the way of assisting you with indoor WLAN deployments. The wealth of useful information contained in Appendix B, "Wireless Hardware, Software, and Service Provider Organizations" is absolutely priceless and much appreciated.

Here's how the book is organized: Chapters 1 and 2 are an introduction to wireless WANs and explain wireless technology fundamentals. Chapters 3-5 dive into network architecture, conducting site surveys, and selecting appropriate antennae. Chapters 6-9 discuss actual equipment selection, installation, interference resolution, and the provision of broadband wireless Internet access. Chapter review questions are located at the end of each chapter and serve as a "pop quiz" to reinforce key concepts and technologies covered.

Comparing this book to others is relatively easy. I haven't found any other publications dedicated to the planning, installation, and maintenance of wireless WANs! While there are a plethora of theoretical RF and wireless technology books already in print, no single publication dedicates its content to explaining the technologies like this book does. In addition, I appreciate the author's strong emphasis on installation and technician safety -- an area not many authors seem to write about. This book will not bog you down in theoretical RF discussions, but rather allows you to learn through the introduction of real-life examples, explanations, and suggestions based on the author's actual installation experiences.

The book contains no CD-ROM or marketing material. Published in March 2003 (prior to the now finalized 802.11g standard), the book primarily covers 802.11a and 802.11b technologies. Both Mr. Unger and Cisco Press deserve a round of applause!

You can purchase Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Self-contradictory

[Enigma2175]

I thank the author for not filling the book with dry-humored jokes, useless "real life" experiences...

...but rather allows you to learn through the introduction of real-life examples, explanations, and suggestions based on the author's actual installation experiences.

So you thank the author for not filling the book with "real life" experiences, then you applaud him for including real life examples. Let me make sure I'm reading correctly... real life experiences-bad. Real life examples-good. What is the difference between the two?

Re:Amazon Review

[deadsaijinx*]

Before someone marks the AC comment as insightful, let me say that the Grant Willey review is under CUSTOMER reviews. And why shouldn't he post the same review here as he did on amazon? Helps people to make decisions on the book and gets it noticed on /.

Re:Chapter 8

[deadsaijinx*]

To the modderators:

The Pringles Can thing was a joke reffering to an older article. it was one that involved boosting the signal of a wireless network using pringles cans. The chapters 6-9 are about choosing the hardware for your wireless LAN.... making sense now? good.

Re:900 MHz

[general_boy]

The author and I worked together in 1997, just as he was starting to transition from 900 MHz to 2.4 GHz equipment. At the time he was seeing some pretty serious interference problems with 900 MHz in the south SF bay - presumably due to the boom in 900 MHz cordless phones. Rest assured he has a lot of experience with that band, so I don't know why he wouldn't write about it, unless he doesn't consider it viable for modern installations.

One interesting thing about 900 MHz is that although the free air path loss and absorption by vegetation is indeed lower vs. higher frequencies, it's also more difficult to deploy antennas with gains like you find in the 2.4 and 5.7 GHz bands. I'm talking mostly about point-to-point deployments. In designs I've done, the system loss (calculation of amount of energy arriving at the remote receiver), assuming antennas of reasonable size, was almost the same for 900 or 2.4. One significant advantage of 2.4 is an 83 MHz band to play with vs. a 26 MHz band on 900. I wouldn't say that kind of equivalence applies to 5.7 though, due to the environmentally-related fade factors starting to really kick in.

I have a lot of respect for Jack and his commitment to wireless, and hope his book sells a gazillion copies. He's a fellow ham radio operator and knows the RF side far better than most wireless LAN/WAN people I've met.

This is a must for any wireless bookshelf.

[Agent Green]

I got this book a few months ago, and it was one of the best books I've purchased. For a book from Cisco Press, there is almost no mention of specific Cisco products, which was surprising...but freshing in a way.

Granted, it's weaker in the areas of security and such, but it is pretty heavy on RF theory and all those things you need to make any license-free WWAN work.

Security and stuff is important as anyone here will likely agree to, but that is really better covered in dedicated books on the topic. In short, this is not a general book about wireless networking. It is techincal and there's a lot of useful information for people who are above the noob level of wireless looking to install outdoor wireless link.

The best part of the book, IMHO, was the antenna theory portions, math, and formulas that were included. The author is a ham radio operator (as am I) and he defintely know what he's talking about.

A very good job, and worth every cent paid.