This is a great book for building the foundations of communication theory. Serves great as an introductory text on analog and digital communications. Concepts are explained very well.

I read this book for 2 of my semesters in my undergrad. In the beginning I didn't like the book much but today all that what I got from this book is helping me back in my Grad studies. One of the finest. Much better than many around.

My only concern about this book is that I have discovered it too late, after graduating in electronic engineering! Really, many explanations that Prof. Lathi gives about Shannon, Nyquist, and the exchange of bandwidth for SNR, both intuitive and rigorous, would have helped me very much at that time.

I really recommend this book for several reasons:
1) Clarity
2) examples
3) Historical background for the development of analog and digital communications.

I hope Lathi will write many other books like this one: I've never found any explanation better than his. He makes you love the subject.

The nice thing about this textbook is that it provides the needed background in probability and random processes. The first nine chapters discuss in detail how digital and analog communication systems work. Chapter 1 is an introduction to communications systems, and signal analysis is covered in chapters 2 and 3. Here the student is encouraged to see a signal as a vector and to think of the Fourier spectrum as a way of representing a signal in terms of its vector components. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss amplitude and then angular modulation. In the digital age many might feel that modulation should be deemphasized. However, modulation is a basic tool of signal processing and its understanding is therefore still necessary. Chapter 6 deals with sampling, pulse code modulation, and delta modulation. Chapter 7 discusses the transmission of digital data while chapters 8 and 9 discuss emerging digital technologies in communications as they were considered cutting edge in 1998. Chapters 10 and 11 are the promised chapters on probability and random processes, sufficient to the point of understanding what is covered in this book. Chapters 12 and 13 discuss the behavior of communication systems in the presence of noise. Optimum signal detection is the subject of chapter 14, and information theory is introduced in chapter 15. Error control coding is the subject of the final chapter of the book.

The best features of this book are its visual style with plenty of diagrams and also its numerous worked out numerical examples. The mathematics is as complex as necessary to explain concepts, but the author doesn't lose sight of the forest for the trees in this aspect of the book. Exercises include not only traditional numerical type problems but computer exercises as well. Although there are entire books written on what this book covers in chapters, particularly in the last half of the book when the author is surveying topics rather than laying foundations, this is a good first book to read even on these advanced topics as far as getting the big picture and seeing how these topics tie into the design of communication systems. Highly recommended.

EXCELLENT:
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This is an amazing book with many sections that are gems! Shannon's theorem is explained so beautifully in such detail that I have never seen anything like it. The chapters on Optimum signal detection and error correction codes are so beautifully written and easy to follow that I want to congratulate the author. The section on how to calculate the power spectral density of different line codes like bipolar, split phase, and polar was the easiest to read yet very detailed.

BAD:
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However the book is scattered. The same material sometimes is covered in multiple chapters in bits and pieces. Partially this is because the author wants to first introduce some of the concepts without discussing probability and later covers them again after studying probability. But, this still can't explain why things are so scattered. The new chapters added in the third edition covering some of the new applications are not written well. The contribution by a guest author to one of the chapters was horrible!

What will make this book excellent is to get rid of the guest author and some of the new material, clean up the presentation of the fundamentals and present in a more unified matter.

This book is a good relief from reading Proakis. I have read many advanced books which were easy to read. The reason Proakis was hard to read wasn't because the subject was advanced but simply it wasn't written well.

p.s. My second edition was read so often that the glued pages started falling out. I bought the third edition and once again the glued pages fell out! I don't know if it is because this is one of the books I most frequently use or just the binding should be improved.

I used Lathi almost 20 years ago. His book was and continues to be the most didactic book on Communications Systems.

This book is a pleasure to read. It motivates each definition and theorem and is very well balanced.

It address analog and digital systems and introduces and emphasizes Fourier Transforms. The book contains also a good introduction to stochastic processes.

This is an outstanding text. Its explanation of Shannon's theorem is the best I've seen anywhere. What makes this text stand out is two things beyond just the subject matter covered (which is also excellent). First, just enough historical background is given behind a major discovery to give an appreciation for why the discovery is important. For example, earlier pioneers in FM thought that FM bandwidth was only the deviation in frequency due to the modulation of the signal. Of course, this proved to be incorrect and the explanation of why is absolutely clear in this text. Second, often the author will take a sentence or two to recap a complex explanation just to make sure the reader has understood the points made. This is excellent pedagogical style.

It is also important to note that the printing of this volume makes its reading a pleasure. The style of the text, the equations, and the examples are well-done.

This is just about the best communications text I've seen. Move over Couch and Sklar.

Please, Professor Lathi write some more of these texts.

This Book is the best one to have evolved in the field of Communications and Signal Processing. I would recommend this to any undergrad/grad student in any part of the world. Enjoy reading this book!

This is the best communication book I've ever read. The part about using signal space concept to explain optimum reciever structure in AWGN is just amazing! Linear algebra and probability theory all appear there! I can't stop myself reading the book once I start to do so! Highly recommended!

This book is quite useful and teaches you the basics without sacrificing the depth of the material. I got this book from Vicki115 and she shipped promptly.

id just like to say its simplest and best book i've ever read on communications

I read the Communication Systems Engineering book by Proakis and Salehi and comparing that with this book by Lathi, this book is a lot better. The concepts are explained much clearly and the book makes every attempt to relate the concepts with day to day life. Attention has been paid to detail so as not to confuse the student too much. Also the mathematics in this book is much more complete than the Proakis and Salehi book. I would recommend this book with 5 stars.

I bought this book as a reference after taking a communication systems intro course using the Mischa Schwartz text. After seeing my lab partner use this book, I had to have it. Lathi's book was so much clearer and more understandable, and I could tell that it would be very helpful in the future. It's also useful for higher-level communication systems; currently I'm in a higher level comm class which uses the second half of the book as the text. I highly recommend this book, it's helped me a lot.

-JB Zurn, EE master's candidate

This book is far better than Haykin's Communication Systems textbook and is cleaner in presentation and organization by leaps and bounds. This book does not introduce topics ad hoc and expect you to have previous background, as Haykin's book does. I really cannot find anything major at all wrong with this book. Everything is clear, the examples are relevant, and the book is really smooth if you start from the beginning. I used this book in addition to Communication Systems by Haykin to learn the subject, and this one is far better; my fellow students agree with me.

This book is excellent for the beginners. People who think that the book is not good probably don't have enough elementary science background.

I have used this book as the adopted text for a course in Communication Systems in Electronics and Communication Engineering major. I find this text a marvelous one in every aspect for introducing the subject, instigating interest in this exciting area. The treatment of math in the text is excellent, as the author takes all efforts to work us through the solved examples, with increasing mathametical maturity. The author goes further to explain the mathametical analysis mapping it to the real world behaviour. I had a chance to refer to other texts in this area too - Simon Haykin's Communication Systems, Carlson's text and others. While they are good, I think this one is the best one for any newcomer to the subject. It helped me in understanding advanced texts like Proakis's Digital Communications.

This is a real good book for someone who needs an introduction to Modern communication systems. The book is very well written and is engrossing. You will begin to like the subject if you read this one.

A total explanation about the data transmission. A really good book for engineer's students with a general exposure about de mathematic tools, as fourier, etc.

There are only two new chapters in this edition.All other chapters are the same as previous editions;even the problems are unchanged. A better reference is the book by A. Bruce Carlson.

It is a very comprehesible, suitable to undergraduate students for their first book in Communications system. I really gain a lot of background knowledge from this book.

I have used this book as the text book for my first semester communication systems course at Cornell. I found this book is easy to read and understand, plus there are plenty of examples. Compared to other miserable communications textbooks out there, this book is a must-read for any telecom majors.

sir, please try to explain things more clearly as your book suffused the students of punjab engineering college with a feeling towards education which is worst to think of.