Mobile communication systems, from their first appearance until today, have experienced tremendous growth and have become an integral part of modern lifestyle. This, combined with the rapid advancement of laptop and handheld computer technology, indicates a strong dynamic for the evolution of mobile communications. Future mobile communication systems aim to achieve bidirectional communication between subscribers, wherever they are, at any time, even when moving at high speeds, providing multimedia services with high transmission rates, even under adverse conditions.

This book aims to cover both the topics related to information transmission techniques in the radio channel, as well as the basic characteristics of the main mobile communication systems. The book begins with a description of wireless propagation conditions in different environments, analyzes digital transmission techniques and the handling of degradations introduced by the radio channel, presents design techniques for cellular systems, and describes the basic principles of mobile communication systems.

Finally, the operating principles and characteristics of existing mobile communication systems (e.g. GSM, GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA/UMTS), as well as systems under development such as WiMAX and broadcasting systems DAB/DMB and DVB, are presented in detail.