• Digital Signal Processing (4th Edition)
• Contemporary Communication Systems Using MATLAB
• Discrete-Time Signal Processing (2nd Edition) (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series)
• Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface. Third Edition, Revised
• Signals and Systems (2nd Edition) (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series)

Strong Book, for Graduate Level
Review written by: Ashraf Tantawy From Nashville, TN USA
This is a very good book on the graduate level, although a little bit hard. If you need an introductory book to digital communication, this is not the right book for you. The book could be easier and more helpful if you have the solution manual, as it reveals some of the key ideas explained in every chapter. The main drawbacks are lack of mathematical background (they assume you have it or can get it somewhere else), and application examples.

Good coverage BUT, downside is 1. lack of examples, 2. Too many typos!
Review written by: T. Chien From California, USA
Good:
1. Coverage is good, focuses on the trend of communication, which is digital communication. Author is not verbal, goes quickly to the point.

2. Shows you the conceptual views of the systems that implements the communication blocks.

3. Excellent plots available that compare the performances of various modulation techniques.

4. I must admit that chapter 4 (random process and probability) is a very well written chapter. It summarizes three important concepts in communication engineering, and these are Gaussian process, bandpass process, and white-noise process. The proofs to the theorems are well-presented and the organization of the chapter is logical. This is the strongest side of the book because without a good understanding of probability, there is no way to understand communication system. A+ for this!

Downside:

As it is with any book, there are the ups and the downs...here I present the major problems with this book.

1. WAY TOO MANY typos - If you read chapter 7 carefully by following the derivations, you will discover there are just TONS of typos. In fact on some pages, you can find more than 2 typos and on average there is roughly 1 typo every 2 page. I also tried to search online for the errata page, but was unsuccessful. It seems like the author doesn't even bother to put up such an errata page. This IS the reason that I gave it TWO STARS. How can anyone learn anything from this book if there are just so many typos in the book? I had the book by Sklar, which is much "cleaner" than this book.

2. Yes, I agree with all the previous reviewers that there is ALMOST NO examples in this book. The author simply presents theory and that's it! Especially in chapter 9 (channel coding), the author really needs to put in there some examples of how to work with linear coding and convolutional coding.

3. And yes, I agree with what most people are saying. This book is NOT a first book on communication system. If this is your first course in communication system and your Prof chose this book, you better hope you've got a good teacher. By simply reading this book, you still won't get too much out of it. Personally, this is the first book I read on communication system. I found myself continuously referring to books by Lathi, Sklar and Ziemer. However, if you have been previously exposed to this field and if you don't read it too carefully into the math (WAY TOO MANY Typos), I do think this book can potentially be valuable.

4. Take a look at another book written by the same author Proakis, titled "Digital Communication" and compare with this book "Communication Systems Engineering". You will DISCOVER one thing: When Proakis wrote this
"Communication Systems Engineering" book, he simply cut and paste the pages from that "Digital Communication" book or it is probably the other way around. So don't waste your money buying both of these books, for if you have limited amount of cash, just get the book "Digital Communication" by the same author. It is more mathematically fullfilling and there is at least an errata page available online! Reading "Communication Systems Engineering" feels like reading the summary of Proakis's other book. It does not make sense.


Conclusion:
No, I do NOT recommend this book at all. The reason this book is chosen by many Professors is probably because Proakis is a renowned researcher in this field and has written several books in such related field, and this book has been around for a while. From student's perspective, we do NOT care about this fact at all, we just need a book that can fill the gaps in our understandings, a book that has examples that "teach" us by "showing" us how it works and this book simply fails miserably in doing this.

Trust me, take a look at the book by Sklar. Also trust Amazon ratings. This book receives 3/5 stars on Amazon and that tells you something. Book by Sklar receives much higher ratings!

Great material
Review written by: Landon Liles From Scottsdale, AZ USA
Covers the material very well. Easy to understand and read. Only downfall is the lack of more worked examples and explanations on the steps taken to complete the example.

Misleading "STOP" Make sure and read the fine print.
Review written by: J. Pickel From Dallas, TX
Make sure and take the time to read the fine print. This is not a hardcover book. This is a series of solutions taken from a solutions manual and emailed chapter by chapter. Taking advantage of those like me that have always had good experiences with Amazon up until this point. I will pay a lot more attention to detail when shopping at Amazon from sellers of used material.

Very poor book.
Review written by: A disappointed reader From Jacksonville, FL USA
Definitely this book is not for a first course in communications. Although it is a book hard to study, that should not be a criterion to condemn a book. But it is not that, it is actually a poorly and sloppily written book.

The lack of examples is not the only defect. An almost total disconnection between the material and the exercises is immediately observed.
There is definitely a lack in consistency and style. Furthermore, the authors hardly care (or at least this is what is reflected from a careful study of the material) whether the information is communicated across.

Also the mathematics is hastily and sloppily presented, and there are small mistakes here and there. Anybody claiming that this is an excellent book should either have a very good knowledge of the material and really not trying to learn from the book or they have no clue what they are talking about.

I have a very complete Mathematics backround and was able to learn what I intended to learn but with a great deal of frustation.
You should definitely try another book to learn or to teach from.