Bill's Book Reviews:      "ADSL & DSL Technologies"
(plus a bonus History of Telecomms technology)
by: Walter Goralski, ISBN: 0- 07-024679-3  McGraw Hill - 1998 -  380 pages - $45.00 (US)

Introduction:  Since I'm re-locating to the USA - into southern Florida, and since I'm going to be working from home (so I'm told), and since I and my wife May both are quite into 'researching' things on the web, I thought I'd need some sort of "high speed access".    IN researching this with the Bell South people in southern Florida, both those in the sales offices as well as with the odd technician in his truck, I've settled (I think) on wanting an ADSL connection to the house (assuming we find a house - we still have no idea where we'll live and our containers are due in less than 2 weeks - so - we'll see - maybe we'll just live on our four sailboats at the dinghy club?)

ANYWAY,  I saw this book, and broswed it, briefly and laid down my cold hard cash.  After reading just over 100 pages

Though I've been through "history of the Internet, History of the Web, history of the PSTN and history of the Baby Bells many times, I found this book has a very very good set of chapters on all these items, and how, in particular, these 'voice-based-engineering & design decisions' affect, drastically, where the world (well US Telecomms) is today, why some of the things are the way they are, and how the obstacles that we all find in the "way" of technology moving into the future are there.

Additionally, it explains the DSL / ADSL items & issues quite well at just the technical level I need to know & understand them very well, so that I can be a 'more informed customer' in my yearning for high-speed access from home.

Additionally - it brings into play a lot of the 'periphery' issues such as local-loops and all the different types of same and how they affect performance & reliability.  It talks about ISPs and how they typically (and sometimes atypically) build and sell services, again which will be useful for me when I look for local or national ISPs who will accept the other end of my connection(s).

So - for the goal(s) i have the book has some redundant information in terms of a lot of "history of technology" - some of which I knew, but all of which is probably quite valuable to have as a "refresher" at this point before I start 'shopping' for an ADSL line in the next few months.

SO:_ very highly recommended - even if you're not hunting for an ADSL line, but you just want to brush-up on your knowledge of the technology.

Chapter list:

1: Weclome to the Information Superhighway
2: The Public Switched Telephone Network
3: Loops & Trunks
4:  Packet Switching and Circuit Switching
5: Possible Solutions
6: Introducing the xDSL Family
7: HDSL and HDSL2
8: The Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Architecture
9: The ADSL Interface and System
10: Inside the ADSL Frames
11: ADSL in Action
12: the other side of ADSL: the DSLAM
13: DSL Migration Scenarios
14: VERY  High-peed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL)
15: Outstanding DSL issues
16: International issues and xDSL

So - let me know if you want more information -

mo later - bill


last updated:  Friday evening_8_October_1999 in New Orleans, Louisiana