Book excerpt: The Second Edition of this critically-acclaimed text continues the standard of excellence set in the first edition by providing a thorough introduction to the fundamentals of telecommunication networks without bogging you down in complex technical jargon or math. Although focusing on the basics, the book has been thoroughly updated with the latest advances in the field, including a new chapter on metropolitan area networks (MANs) and new sections on Mobile Fi, ZigBee and ultrawideband. You’ll learn which choices are now available to an organization, how to evaluate them and how to develop strategies that achieve the best balance among cost, security and performance factors for voice, data, and image communication.