Communication Systems: An Introduction to Signals and Noise in Electrical Communication

I teach a Communication Systems class (senior electrical engineers) and have been using the Carlson Crilly Rutledge 4th edition. Paul Crilly has done an excellent job of updating this communications textbook, adding homework problems and material on wireless propagation. Some of the material is mathematically difficult, but I have not found an easier book except those suited for a BET degree. The 4th edition contained a number of errors. I sent Paul Crilly a list of errors I found in the 4th edition and he has corrected 100% of them. I will use this 5th edition in my class next year.

This product is very insightful with regards to communications systems. Some of the notation take some time to get used to, but beyond that, Carlson, et al, does a good job explaining the many facets of electrical communications and the analysis thereof. Warning: this book should only be purchased by those individuals who have a strong background in electrical circuitry and mathematics as the content of the book relies on a prior knowledge of these subjects. However, for those select few who are electrical engineering majors, please think about purchasing this text book.

I used an earlier version of this text in an undergraduate "introduction to analog communication systems" class. I enjoyed it because our curriculum was extremely mathematically rigorous and this book was fully consonant with Professor Sandler's mindset that the only way to fully understand communication systems is to track the signal spectra (or power spectra, as the case may be) through the various nodes in the system. Those who complain that the text is difficult are mathematical milksops who do not deserve EE degrees from the fine institutions that still cling to this arguably obsolescent work, while those who moan about variables not being redefined remind me of the clowns I met in "graduate" school at CWRU who were thrown for a loop because one text used G(j omega) for a transfer function while another used H(j2pi f)--as if the difference amounted to a half-hill of beans. (I admit to arguable obsolescence because Carlson focuses his attention on strict mathematical underpinnings, never mind the real-world systems that have taken command since 1970, when he authored the version of the text that I read.) I withhold my fifth star because, as others have pointed out, there are generous typographical errors here and there, and the book can be considered quite mathematically strenuous for a first course delivered to mathematically challenged "students." I suggest Haykin instead, which adopts a softer tone.

I have read this book once i understood most of things, i need to put them together one more time. Please help me out.

I used an earlier edition of this text in the Communications Systems course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where Prof. Carlson was, at that time, the head of the Electrical Engineering Department) and found it to be a very good book. The explanations were concise and easy-to-understand. The book explains the underlying concepts well. The mathematical tools needed for the understanding of the concepts are introduced at the appropriate times. This book is used in the EE curricula at RPI and at Stanford University (in the EE 279 Introduction to Communication Systems course) and at other schools. For an EE student at the undergraduate level, this is an excellent introduction to communication systems and should help you understand quite a variety of topics dealing with both analog and digital communications.