Physical Principles of Wireless Communications

The second edition of this popular text describes the salient features of modern wireless communication systems integrated with rigorous analyses of the devices and physical mechanisms that constitute the physical layers of these systems. After a review of Maxwell's equations, it explains the operation of antennas and antenna arrays in sufficient detail to allow for design calculations. The text explores the propagation of electromagnetic waves leading to useful descriptions of mean path loss through the streets of a city or inside an office building. It also covers the principles of probability theory as well as the physics of Geostationary Earth Orbiting satellites and Low Earth Orbiting satellites.

Victor L. Granatstein was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York, in 1963. After a year of postdoctoral work at Columbia, he became a research scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1964 to 1972 where he studied microwave scattering from turbulent plasma. In 1972, he joined the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a research physicist, and from 1978 to 1983, he served as head of NRL's High Power Electromagnetic Radiation Branch. In August 1983, he became a professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Maryland, College Park. From 1988 to 1998, he was director of the Institute for Plasma Research at the University of Maryland. Since 2008, he has been Director of Research of the Center for Applied Electromagnetics at the University of Maryland. His research has involved invention and development of high-power microwave sources for heating plasmas in controlled thermonuclear fusion experiments, for driving electron accelerators used in high-energy physics research, and for radar systems with advanced capabilities. He also has led studies on the effects of high-power microwaves on integrated electronics. His most recent study is of air breakdown in the presence of both terahertz radiation and gamma rays with possible application to detecting concealed radioactive material. He has coauthored more than 250 research papers in scientific journals and has co-edited three books. He holds a number of patents on active and passive microwave devices. Granatstein is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has received a number of major research awards including the E.O. Hulbert Annual Science Award (1979), the Superior Civilian Service Award (1980), the Captain Robert Dexter Conrad Award for scientific achievement (awarded by the Secretary of the Navy, 1981), the IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Award (1991), and the Robert L. Woods Award for Excellence in Electronics Technology (1998). He has spent part of his sabbaticals in 1994, 2003, and 2010 at Tel Aviv University where he holds the position of Sackler Professor by Special Appointment.

Noise in Wireless Communications. Antennas. Antenna Arrays. RF Wave Propagation. Statistical Design of Cell Phone Systems and Wireless LANs. Tropospheric & Ionospheric Effects in Long Range. SATCOM.