TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The editor, with Japan’s DoCoMo Laboratories in the U.S., divides his contributors’ chapters into four main parts: a vision for the next generation includes the evolution of mobile networks and services to this point, and the all Internet Protocol next-generation systems.
Abstract
36:405 NEXT GENERATION MOBILE SYSTEMS: 3G AND BEYOND edited by Minoru Etoh (New York: Wiley, 2005—$120.00, ISBN 0-470-09151-7, 382 pp., charts, tables, bibliography, index) is the latest in a growing shelf of books trying to project the coming mobile world. The editor, with Japan’s DoCoMo Laboratories in the U.S., divides his contributors’ chapters into four main parts. A vision for the next generation includes the evolution of mobile networks and services to this point, and the all Internet Protocol (IP) next-generation systems. Overview of mobile network technologies covers radio access technologies in cellular networks, wireless LAN evolution, IP mobility, and application patterns for next-generation mobile networks. Middleware and applications discusses terminal software platform technologies, multimedia coding technologies and applications, and wireless web services. Finally, security assesses cryptographic algorithms and protocols for coming mobile systems (XG), issues of authentication and authorization, and security policy enforcement for downloaded code. As the chapters suggest, some of this is fairly technical and assumes an engineering background, but a good deal is readily accessible by a non-technical audience. Understandably a good deal of what is here draws on the DoCoMo experience and research. (Chris Sterling)