Digital Communications ― Fundamentals and Applications

This is a revised and updated edition of the field's classic, best-selling introduction. With remarkable clarity, Dr. Bernard Sklar introduces every digital communication technology at the heart of today's wireless and Internet revolutions, providing a unified structure and context for understanding them -- all without sacrificing mathematical precision. Throughout, Sklar helps students understand the big picture and delve into the details of current modulation, coding, and signal processing techniques. He traces signals and key processing steps from the information source through transmitter, channel, receiver, and information sink.

Digital Communications, Third Edition begins by introducing the fundamentals of signals, spectra, formatting, and baseband transmission. Next, Sklar presents practical coverage of trellis-coded modulation, Reed-Solomon codes, synchronization, spread spectrum solutions, and much more. Throughout, he offers numeric examples, step-by-step implementation guidance, and block diagrams that place key concepts and techniques in clear context. Coverage includes:

• Signals and spectra, including signal classification, spectral density, transmission, and bandwidth
• Formatting, baseband modulation, and baseband demodulation/detection
• Bandpass modulation and demodulation/detection
• Communications link analysis and system link budgets
• Channel coding: waveform, block, convolutional, and Reed-Solomon codes
• Advanced turbo coding and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) techniques
• Managing modulation and coding tradeoffs
• Receiver and network synchronization
• Multiplexing and multiple access
• Spread spectrum overview and techniques
• Source coding: amplitude quantizing, differential PCM, adaptive prediction, digital data, and more
• Fading channels: challenges, characterization, and mitigations
• The essentials of OFDM and MIMO technology
• Long Term Evolution (LTE) Wireless, Software Defined Radio, 5G, and other advances