This book presents the subject of microwave links (which recently has been more widely known as Fixed Wireless Access, or FWA), from the basic concepts of free space propagation and aperture antennas, through the transmission of analog and digital signals in noisy (and fading) channels, right to the design specification and costing of links. Applicable International Telecommunications Union recommendations are explained and discussed in detail. Radio frequency assignments and the digital hierarchy in use in North America differ significantly from the ITU assignments and these differences are explained in detail. After a perriod when optical links appeared to become the solution to all transmission problems, the ongoing revolution in the telecommunications sector and the advances in technology have brought microwave links back to center stage. They are becoming incrasingly popular, not only to interconnect base stations for cellular radio, but also as a means to offer fixed broadband access to the end user.
List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Propagation. Fading. Analog Links. Digital Links. Error Control Codes. Link Design. Appendix A: Detailed Frequency Plans. Appendix B: Signal-to-Noise Ratio in Angle Modulation. Appendix C: Costs. Appendix D: Link Calculations. Index.
CARLOS SALEMA earned his PhD in electrical engineering in 1972 from the University of London. He is presently Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), in Lisbon, Portugal, where he lectures on telecommunication systems and aperture antennas.