Telecom Convergence, 2/e

Steven Shepard (Williston, VT) is a professional writer and educator specializing in international telecommunications. Formerly with Hill Associates, he is the author of Telecommunications Convergence and the Optical Networking Crash Course.

"What everyone in a Telecom Marketing Department should know, September 20, 2000 Reviewer: pjones@tyler.net (see more about me) from Dallas, Texas USA This is a good business model for the up and coming CLEC's, while it doesn't go into the other services to set them apart it does offer where the Tel-co world is and is heading, while explaining how things work, good Brief over view of the technologies with out going to deep. Very good lite reading, Everyone in the Marketing department in the telco world should have a copy. One last word, this is not a expensive book. Good writing and great concepts converge in this book, August 15, 2000 Reviewer: Gary Martin from Lebanon, NJ United States Simple to understand, easy to read, always interesting, and most amazingly, often entertaining. This is high praise for a "technical book." It is actually not a technical book, but it is about technical subjects, several relatively complex market concepts, and the big trends in networking. All easy to follow and recall after reading. I like Mr. Shepard's organization and style. It seemed to me that I was often hearing him speak these thoughts, rather than just reading them. I highly recommend this book to Service Providers, Network Equipment manufacturers, and to the component companies that are designing the chips for future networks. This book will jump-start your understanding of how convergence is influencing system and service designs for our future networked world. Enjoy the book, I did.

• Introduction: Playing in the Convergence Whirlpool Telecommunications: The Big Bang and the Collapsing Universe Changes in managerial hierarchies Attendant changes in network hierarchies Convergence: A Definition Convergence of technologies (IP; ATM; SONET; PPP; DWDM; Examples and implications (high-level) Convergence of services Convergence of companies Implications of Convergence The Technology A Network Overview; Access; 56Kbps modems; ISDN; XDSL; Wireless local loop; LMDS/MMDS; GSM/variants; FDMA/TDMA/CDMA; Transport: Building the Cloud; GEO; MEO; LEO; HALE; Microwave; SONET/SDH; SS7SS7/IP, ATM, Frame Relay internetworking; WDM; DWDM; UDWDM; Optical issues with WDM systems; Management of optical issues; Electro-optical switching; EDFAs The Services Service types (Voice; Video; Image; Data; E-mail; Fax) Integrated services (H.323) Unified Messaging Virtual Private Networks (VPN) Quality of Service (QoS) issues QoS protocols (IP TOS; DiffServ; RSVP/IntServ; MPLS; ATM OoS) Network management