Page 22 - Fundamentals of Communications Systems

xx Preface

both types of problems allows the student to both exercise and extend their
learning in the proper balance.

Examples and Example Solutions
My learning style is one where a very succinct presentation of the issues works
best. I originally wrote this book where the material was presented in a con-
densed version with little or no examples. I then followed each chapter with a
set of example solutions to homework problems. During the many revisions of
the book I came to realize that many students learn best with examples along
with a presentation of the theory. I added a significant number of in-text exam-
ples to meet this learning need. I still like a succinct presentation so I did not
move all example solutions to in chapter examples. Consequently, each chapter
has a set of in-chapter examples and a set of worked solutions. This method was
viewed as a compromise between a succinct presentation (my learning style and
hopefully a few others) and lots of examples (many students’ learning style).

Miniprojects
Both for myself and the students I have taught, learning is consumated in
“doing.” I include “Miniprojects” in the book to give the students a chance to
implement the theory. The project solutions are appropriate for oral presenta-
tion and this gives the students experience that will be a valuable part of an
engineering career. The format of the project is such that it is most easily done
in Matlab as that is the most common computer tool used in communication
engineering systems. To aid students who are not familiar with Matlab pro-
gramming I have included the code for all the Matlab generated figures in the
text on the book web page. This also allows students to see how the theory can
be implemented in practice.

Writing of the Book

The big question that has to be answered in this preface is “Why should anyone
write another communication theory book?” The short answer is “There is no
good reason for the book and a rational person would not have written the book.”
The book resulted from a variety of random decisions and my general enjoyment
of communication engineering. A further understanding of this book and my
decision to write it can be obtained by understanding the stages I perceived
in looking back on the writing this book. This documentation is done in some
sense for those who will follow in my folly of attempting to write a book to give
them a sense of the journey.
1. Captured. As a child, a high school student and a college student I was
always drawn to math and science, to problem solving, and to challenges.
Quickly my career path steered toward engineering, toward electrical en-
gineering, and finally toward communication engineering. I took a job as a
communication engineer while pursuing a graduate education. In the first