Rating: 
Summary: It is not the 4th edition but reprint of 3rd. Nothing new !
Review: Buyers beware, it is not the 4th edition of the book but just a re-print of 3rd. I have checked the table of contents in amazon.co.uk and bn.com web sites before purchasing. They were identical and it seemed there were separate chapters on SS7 over SIP, H.323, IP, MGCP, VoIP, TCP/IP, etc. I have the 3rd edition of the book as well. After I received the book, I realised that there is no separate chapters as advertised. In fact it is just a re-print of the 3rd edition. SIP is mentioned just once by the end of the book. There is nothing about mobile application part,there is a few words about MGCP and VoIP etc. One can have much more information by surfing web. This edition not worth the money. Furthermore, there is no new organised chapter structure as basic to advanced. Correct table of contents is like this :Signaling System #7.
SS7 Network.
Overview of a Protocol.
Overview of Signal Units.
Message Transfer Part (MTP).
Message Transfer Part Level Three.
General Description of SCCP Functions.
Overview of TCAP.
Overview of ISUP.
Local Number Portability.
Appendices Exactly the same as 3rd edition. Shame on you McGrawHill but not anymore...
Rating: 
Summary: Not so good
Review: Hard to read and pretty verbose which makes it hard to find things again. Contains some mistakes.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I am a network engineer for a wireless company and I would like to note that Mr. Russell's books are very outstanding and helpful. It gave me a very good understanding regarding telecommunications protocols and among other things. It had helped with me my job funtions, and enable me to share these knowledge to my fellow engineers.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Chapter 5
Review: I can really only comment on chapter 5, which covers MTP2. I thought that chapter was poorly organized. It contains errors, and even outright contradictions from one section to the next.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Chapter 5
Review: I can really only comment on chapter 5, which covers MTP2. I thought that chapter was poorly organized. It contains errors, and even outright contradictions from one section to the next.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference source but toooo repetitive
Review: I feel that this book would serve as a helpful reference source only if you already know about SS7. It will not teach you from the start, although almost all the basics are covered, it still lacks the approach which a 10 page tutorial has! i.e. to tell you how things works for a novice. Many important topics, especially in the ISUP section are not covered well or are not covered at all. e.g. there is NO section which talks about TESTING SS7 and testing strategies, equipment etc. Chapters on MTP are the best and contain a lot of relevant, hard to come by, information but many concepts are repeated so much that it is maddennig. Instead of presenting a lot of new material, same concepts are rephrased many a times. In short, buy this book if you already know what is SS7 and what it does and need to have a quick reference book. This book has to be used in conjunction with ITU-T documents to make complete sense/to make you more productive. Overall a good, should have, book and for the lack of better book, the only reference available (to the best of my humble knowledge)
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating to follow, overly verbose,
Review: I ordered this book hoping the first two reviewers were overly pessimistic, but boy were they right. This book has terriffic potential, but Travis does not stick to the chosen topic well enough, mixing material covered in different layers. It's a good thing I saw this and could overlook it...pity the novice hoping to make some sense of the SS7 structure. There's way too much verbage and not nearly enough illustrations and real-world examples. After finishing the book, I felt I was presented with a "gob" of information and a very weak understanding of it's true structure. On the plus side, it's probably the best textbook on the subject, but that speaks stongly to the need for another book, or major re-write.
Rating:
Summary: The best SS7 book I've seen
Review: I've looked high and low and this is the best all-around SS7 book I've found. If you're new to the field of SS7 and looking for a quick and easy introduction, or if you're a guru and you want to decode hex strings, then this book probably isn't for you. But if you're familiar with the basic principles and want to build on that knowledge, and/or if you want a reference "for the rest of us," you've found it.
Rating:
Summary: The answers are there, if you can find them.
Review: If you need a book on SS7, this is probably the one you should buy. But that is only because there is little else to choose from. Unfortunately, it is a very poorly written book. Russell obviously knows his stuff, but like most other telecommunications engineers he seems unable to write in a form that gives the reader any pleasure. Facts repeat themselves (often several times in the same paragraph), different chapters repeat the same thing in several different ways, and there is rarely much explanation for WHY things are done the way they are. What's worse is the pointless verbosity of the whole mess - it's almost impossible to find an answer to a question about SS7 quicky. I think the author has done a fine job putting the facts down, but the editors never did their jobs. This book reads like a first draft that was never ever reviewed.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Rewritten 4th Edition
Review: In response to the review below, McGraw-Hill wishes to make clear that the Fourth Edition of Signaling System #7 is a completely rewritten book. Whereas the 2nd and 3rd editions were made by adding to material to the existing text, the 4th has been rewritten from scratch (indeed, Mr. Russell has trimmed over 100 pages of out-dated and replicated material) and the new material folded into the existing chapter structure. There is some material from previous editions, particularly in chapters on more evergreen topics, but updates and new sections have been added throughout.
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