Distributed telecommunications networks via satellites and packet switching

This is a difficult book to review. Some interesting material is presented, but the treatment is uneven, the choice of topics is puzzling, and the organization is confusing. Since no overall theme is discernible, the best that can be done is to review the chapters sequ.entially. Chapter 1 says the usual good things about resource sharing via communications. The first substantive chapter, ch. 2, is a brief introduction to the economics and applications of satellite communications. The most interesting part of the discussion reveals that while earth-station and satellite-transmission capacity costs are dropping, user-to-earth-station communications costs are rising. The overall result is that, on average, satellite communication costs will rise. Chapter 3 then provides a general description of the types of multiple-access techniques that can be used to share satellite transmission capacity. The book then shifts gear (ch. 4) to