Which book will help me to make my own wireless network?

Wireless networking is one of those things that is easier to do in practice than it is to learn in theory. You will learn more by jumping in right ahead rather than poring through the books. But if you’re an absolute beginner you need to start somewhere. So I’ll give an overview of the practical aspects of wireless networks first and towards the end of my answer I’ll give suggestions from where you can learn the theory.

All wireless networks have three basic components

Antennas that send out wireless signals

A hardware that provides input signal to the antennas which it sends out wirelessly

An operating system that controls the hardware, which sends the input signals to antennas, which then sends it out wirelessly.

Now if you look at something as basic as a wifi router you’ll note that it has

Antennas (either external or on chip)

A chip to which those antennas are connected

An OS (that is accessible through the web admin panel) that controls the chip

So as a start you should try to read the specifications of wifi routers. What kind of chip does it use? What kind of antenna does it has? What kind of OS runs on it? Buy a cheap wifi router and tear it apart. Watch tear down videos on youtube. Try to absorb as much information from a complete working system as you can.

Later on you’ll come to an understanding that a wifi router is simply a specialized computer. At that point you should try to build a wifi computer of your own.

The concepts used in wifi base stations are exactly the same as the ones used in base stations for 5G and 4G networks. So all your skills are transferable.

By the way, next time you go out and keep an eye on the telephone towers you come across. Try to understand how the different components on the towers namely

The wire

The antennas

The base stations

are connected to each other. At this point you don’t have sufficient theory to fit all the pieces together. But when you start to learn theory, having seen things first hand is going to help you get a better grasp of underlying concepts.

Don’t try to learn everything all at once. Think of the subjects as separate courses that you take in college. Divide your time into “semesters” and try to get a hold of fundamental concepts first.

Learn the OSI model before you do anything else, so that you have a framework of how to arrange the different components of a wireless network in your mind. For me nothing has helped better than this video by drunk engineer. It’s 18 minutes long Check it out

https://youtu.be/3b_TAYtzuho?si=o-DB3bPcYFg3Dn12

At this point with the OSI model in place can you fit the telecom tower and all of its components in it?

What to study in theory?

In theory you want to learn all about antennas. How many different kinds there are? How do they work and what are their radiation patterns?

Try to co-relate your learning with the on field deployments in mobile towers. At this point you should be asking questions like

Given the length of the antenna can I guess what frequencies it operates on?

Given the shape of the antenna can I guess its radiation pattern?

Given the placement of the antenna can I guess its coverage?

Some youtube channels that will help you learn more about antennas

Antenna and wave propagation playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgwJf8NK-2e7tzLIDL4aXUbtRFY3ykmkT

Antenna theory by NPTEL

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzJaFd3A7DZsL9dZDCeA3ijHZwwBb6R8y

stan gibilisco’s videos (must watch)

https://www.youtube.com/user/stangibilisco/playlists

And tonnes and tonnes of videos by ham radio operators (search for them) along with DIY antenna builders, you can learn a lot by watching people build antennas. Build one yourself and see if you can improve reception in your home

And this great Practical Antenna Handbook for when you need it

https://archive.org/details/PracticalAntennaHandbook

Alt link

http://s1.nonlinear.ir/epublish/book/Practical_Antenna_Handbook_0071639586.pdf

Then you want to know as much as possible about the chips that provide a signal to it. Learn about motherboards. Building computer systems from components. If you’re a gamer it should be easy for you. If not, watch videos of people building gaming PCs. To build a base station for a wireless network you’ll just have to switch a few components. You’ll know them if you’ve taken the time to learn about chips. This guy is good

https://www.youtube.com/user/AwesomeSauceNews/playlists

WARNING: Remember you are here to learn about how to build wireless networks not to play games. The urge will be strong. Resist it ... if you can….

And finally know how to operate a network. That you can understand by playing around with a wifi router admin panel. Whatever is in there should be more than enough.

Some More Material

I have found sunny’s classroom videos invaluable in helping me learn as well as refresh software part of the wireless networks. You can see his playlists here

https://www.youtube.com/user/sunnylearning/playlists .

Be sure to check out the videos on modulation schemes.

Wireless Networking for the developing world has great book that helps with both concepts as well as the business aspects of running a network http://wndw.net/

Start your own wisp is a great community resource for both learning about practical operations as well as sourcing of materials https://startyourownisp.com/

Remember that the industry is moving towards IP based networks. From 4G onwards all cellular networks run on IP. So spending some time studying that will help a lot.

Obviously it is very easy for me to list out all of the things here. No doubt you’ll find yourself stuck in places. Feel free to ask questions on quora and the community will do its best to help you. Take things as slow as you can. It sounds overwhelming but it's not. Once you tune yourself in.

Building your own network

Now if you do things right, not only will you have the knowledge but also very valuable insights that will tell you what most internet companies are doing wrong. And that insight will help you start a successful wireless network of your own. As a final note don’t get washed away in industry trends.

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