Mobile communication technologies have moved us a step closer to realizing the aim of ubiquitous access, anytime on the move. Cellular wireless systems have evolved over the past three decades from the analog-based first-generation standard to a digital-based fourth-generation standard. The transmission rates over the years have gone up steadily, and the current fourth-generation systems have ushered us into megabits per second. The emerging fifth-generation communication systems aim to provide transmission rates of the order of gigabits per second.

The fourth edition of the book Principles of mobile communication (PMC), right at the cusp of fifth-generation communication systems development, is indeed a timely one. Over the years, PMC has been an excellent reference for various aspects related to mobile/wireless communications. All editions of PMC, including the current one, have focused on providing comprehensive and systematic coverage of various aspects related to wireless communication systems design.

The book starts off with an overview of various wireless communication standards and then moves to the topic of propagation modeling. A good understanding of transmission medium propagation characteristics is very much central to the design of any communication system. This is followed by detailed coverage of various digital modulation schemes on both the modulation and demodulation fronts, which are at the heart of most current wireless systems. These topics constitute part of the basic knowledge required for understanding current and future wireless systems. The book then moves on to cover advanced topics like diversity and multiplexing techniques. On the diversity topic, the book places special emphasis on spatial diversity techniques, which involve the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitters and receivers of any wireless communication system. Moving on to multiplexing, the book provides comprehensive coverage of two of the most commonly used techniques, namely, code-division multiple access (CDMA) and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA). The book also provides coverage on forward-error correction codes. Specific topics include block codes, convolutional codes, and turbo codes. The book then winds up with a discussion on radio resource management issues like handoff and channel assignment techniques.

The fourth edition of PMC retains the same chapter structure as the third edition [1], although some new content has been added to a few chapters. This was done to keep it up to date with respect to some of the new developments that have happened over the past five years. The content related to 3D channel models in chapter 2 is a case in point. The content of chapter 6 was also enhanced to capture research and development related to massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems. Chapter 14, on channel assignment techniques, is totally new.

In summary, the author made a systematic effort to update the earlier edition and come out with a book that is more in sync with current wireless systems. As part of future revisions, the author could consider including topics related to low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and polar codes in chapter 8 and enhance coverage in chapter 6 to include 3D beamforming.