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Summary: Review by Dr. Norman Abramson
Review: Posted by the author - Benny Bing.Review by Dr. Norman Abramson, inventor of the first random access protocol - the ALOHA protocol. There are three key technologies that are important in the design of efficient digital communication networks - communication channel theory, traffic analysis and transformation, and multiple access protocols. The first of these technologies, communication channel theory, dealing with questions of modulation, signal detection and error control coding is the oldest and best developed. Traffic analysis and transformation, dealing with questions of data compression, protocol spoofing and caching is perhaps the least developed although the first major results in this area are almost as old as those of communication channel theory. The third of these key technologies, multiple access protocols, dealing with the sharing of a common communication channel by a group of users has assumed a greater importance during the past two decades with the advent of shared cellular networks, packet radio networks and satellite networks. The analysis and design of these multiple access protocols in a variety of application areas is the topic of this well organized, comprehensive yet compact book. Bing defines the scope of the multiple access problem, describes many of the different approaches taken to solve the multiple access problem and analyzes the various approaches to their solution. Both fixed allocation strategies such as FDMA and TDMA as well as random access strategies based on a variety of ALOHA channels are treated. Since important differences in multiple access protocols define competing approaches in the network marketplace at the beginning of the third millennium this volume is well timed to help us evaluate different multiple access choices in network design. Dr. Norman Abramson ALOHA Networks, San Francisco, July, 2000
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