Customer Reviews

Cisco Catalyst(R) QoS: Quality of Service in Campus Networks

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Vital Statistics:
I am reviewing Cisco Catalyst QOS: Quality of Service in Campus Networks (ISBN: 1-58705-120-6). The book is 400 pages in length and is divided into 2 sections, Fundamental QOS Concepts and Advanced QOS Concepts. It includes coverage of QOS functionality on 2900, 3500, 4000 & 6500 series Cisco Catalyst Switches. The book states that it is intended for network engineers who work with Catalysts and seek a deeper understanding of QOS. Add CCNP level switch understanding to that list, at the very least. The book's authors are Mike Flannagan, Richard Froom, and Kevin Turek, all CCIE-level engineers who work directly for Cisco in Research Triangle Park. Notice the presence of "authors", "engineers" and "research" in one sentence... a fearful combination to say the least. Buckle up, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

My Reading Experience:
I set out to read this book as an attempt to get an understanding of QOS for my CCIE studies. Oops, Rich didn't read the fine print. This book isn't really so much a book about QOS concepts in general as it is an implementation guide for utilizing QOS on a Catalyst network. Works out okay for me, though, because my company runs 4000 and 6500 series Catalysts and the information will prove quite useful as we roll out QOS. For my CCIE studies, however, I will still need to pick up a book that is somewhat more general, like maybe the Cisco DQOS Exam Certification Guide or Cisco IOS 12.0 Quality of Service. Luckily for me, the book spends the first 2 chapters teaching the underlying QOS concepts for the features that are discussed in the remainder of the book. After the first 2 chapters, the Fundamentals section is finished up with a 2-chapter overview of the QOS support on the various Catalyst platforms.

Part 2 of the book presents QOS implementation on the various Catalyst platforms. I believe the intention of the authors was for the reader to only read the specific chapters in part 2 that pertained to the specific equipment they'd be using. I say this because the chapters repeat a lot of the same information. From the standpoint of this being an implementation guide, it's good that each chapter stands on its own and you don't have to read the entire book to get an understanding of QOS as it applies to your particular Catalyst platform.

The thing that makes this book unique, and the thing which I liked most about it, is the in-depth coverage of the Catalyst 6500 series. There is a chapter dedicated to 6500 by itself, which shows both hybrid and native commands for all the QOS functions. There is also a chapter that focuses on the 6500 MSFC and Flexwan modules. The last time I checked, there was exactly one book that I knew of that had any info about the 6500, Cisco LAN Switching (CCIE Professional Development series). Since my network uses 6509's with MSFC2 and FlexWAN cards, I found those chapters to be extremely useful and will be using them to implement QOS.

If I seem wishy-washy about this title, it's because I am. My recommendation depends upon what you want to accomplish. If you want to learn QOS concepts, I'd recommend reading something else, like the Cisco DQOS Exam Certification Guide. If you're actually implementing QOS in a Catalyst network, I'd recommend this book. The writing is just a little too dry and the examples are a little too abstract. I would have liked to have seen more real-world examples in plain English. Using my 5-ping rating scale, I'll give Cisco Catalyst QOS three pings - two for the beginning of the book, and one for the 6500 coverage.

!!..!

"Cisco Catalyst QoS" by Flannagan, Froom, and Turek is one of a few books by Cisco dedicated to one platform and one feature of that platform. As a long-time CCIE candidate, I have found this book very useful in complementing my studies of the Catalyst 3500. But this book does much more than simply discuss the 3500.

In particular, items I found important:

* The book starts out by giving an in-depth review of how QoS is applied to the Catalysts. For example, the excellent diagram on page 13 shows how different entities may all employ QoS services (CAC, FRTS, cRTP, etc..)

* Next, the book moves through the different QoS components - from scheduling, to token bucket mechanisms, traffic-shaping and policing.

* The beauty of the book is shown around page 150 - the CoS to DSCP map. This is a sparsely documented area of QoS, and the only reference outside of Cisco (that I've found) which succinctly explains the layer 2 to layer 3 mappings for Catalyst IOS.

* The book's 2nd part is dedicated to "Advanced QoS Concepts" (as if the concepts explored in the first 120 pages were not advanced enough!). This includes chapters on QoS for the beast of Catalysts - 6500s and 4000 Catalysts.

I have not found many typos in this book, but one typo that made me do a double take is on page 125, 1st paragraph - "The match-all option is a logical OR operation" The match-all operation is a logical ALL operation (match-any is logical OR operation).

If I had to pick a `Top 10' list of CiscoPress books, this would probably make the cut. The book discusses subject areas just not duplicated in other books. And, as the 3500 switch is part of the CCIE lab as of the writing of the book, it is a very useful tool for advanced configuration understanding.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:

!!!!!

This book is a must have for anyone wanting solid information on Quality of Service performed on the Cisco Catalyst series switches. This is some of the best QoS reference material around, and it' s less then 400 pages. You can't beat the value this book offers.

Being a CCIE candidate and having attempted the lab once I have read quite a few books and articles on Quality of Service. I enjoyed every page of this book for the detail and wealth of information it contained within its chapters. The first chapter of this book is dedicated to providing the foundation for the various types QoS. You are given easy to understand explanations on (DiffServ, Integrated Services, WFQ. PQ, CQ, WRED,etc) It's by far the best information I have ever read. The authors do an incredible job in explaining this to the reader. You are given reasons for implementing QoS in your network. They discuss bandwidth, jitter, types of delays, and packet loss in laymen terms. Once you have a good grasp from chapter 1, Chapter 2 builds on this. In this chapter the various types of QoS are broken down into components. This is very helpful in both learning and in the real world. You are able to completely understand which components can be used to resolve certain types of issues. Chapter 2 goes over all the QoS types, and shows the commands to implement them. The material in this chapter will allow the reader to use this information in any and all areas of QoS in any environment.

The remaining chapters are dedicated to the different types of Catalyst switches. These chapters include information on their features, QoS types supported and how to configure them. The book is written in an easy to follow layout. The QoS components are laid out for quick viewing on what features are supported on each and every switch. The authors did an great job on these chapters to help you fully understand QoS in a switching environment. There is also information on Layer 3 QoS running on the supported switches.

I believe that anyone reading this book will benefit from the information presented in here. Do you just need an easy to understand explanation of QoS? In-depth information on a specific QoS features on a certain Catalyst switch. Are you looking for a easy to use reference on Catalyst QoS features. Then book will help you in these areas and more. Grab it and read a few pages and see for yourself how indispensable this book is. The real bonus is this book is written by three CCIE's.

I'm a Global Knowledge instructor who teaches the Cisco DQoS 1.0 class. This book is GREAT! It unlocked many of the QoS mysteries that I still had concerning Layer 2 and 3 on the switches. Switches perform QoS in the TCAM and other hardware resources. Because of such, it is a very complex topic. This book is a great follow-on to the Wendell Odom DQoS book or great as a stand-alone if you already understand "some" QoS. These guys cover the Modular QoS CLI (MQC) and most of what you need to deploy a solution. GREAT BOOK!

I have recently read the book titled "Cisco Catalyst® QoS: Quality of Service in Campus Networks, ISBN: 1587051206. Cisco Press recently released this book on June 6, 2003. This book is among the best technical books I've read. It is very detailed, covering Quality of Service in all the latest Catalyst Switches. This book is best suited for Intermediate to Advanced Networking professionals. Although there is a great section that explains the fundamentals of QOS for Beginners or those that need to brush up on QOS terms and definitions.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who anticipates running QOS in the LAN environment. Having this book ahead of time, before networking equipment purchases or software upgrades will save you a lot of time and money. There are tables in the book that depict the capabilities of the more recent catalyst switches and modules. These tables help a great deal in assessing where your network is at in terms of supporting QoS and perhaps where you need to be in order to accomplish your QoS goals
This book contains every aspect that should be considered, in order to properly deploy QOS in the LAN environment. There is an outstanding chapter covering the Catalyst 6500 series switch, with hard to find information. The chapter covers every detail from hardware to software requirements. The configuration examples cover both modes of operation whether you're running Hybrid or Native Mode software.
This books straight and to the point examples with supporting figures allow a person to dig right to the meat of a given topic. The illustrations assist a great deal in conceptualizing the authors intended message.

Knowing what a big topic QoS was, I purchased this book as an introduction and overview. Since then, I have used it almost weekly as a reference. The first few chapters are invaluable in planning QoS deployments, however, the chapters on LAN QoS could use some elaboration. Most of this book focuses on router-based applications, and while IOS switches are similar, the queueing and monitoring configurations are completely different than routers. I'd also like to see some more information on LAN best practices contained within. In general, this is a great resource for a topic that can be challenging at first glance for the typical routing/switching engineer.

Vital Statistics:
I am reviewing Cisco Catalyst QOS: Quality of Service in Campus Networks (ISBN: 1-58705-120-6). The book is 400 pages in length and is divided into 2 sections, Fundamental QOS Concepts and Advanced QOS Concepts. It includes coverage of QOS functionality on 2900, 3500, 4000 & 6500 series Cisco Catalyst Switches. The book states that it is intended for network engineers who work with Catalysts and seek a deeper understanding of QOS. Add CCNP level switch understanding to that list, at the very least. The book's authors are Mike Flannagan, Richard Froom, and Kevin Turek, all CCIE-level engineers who work directly for Cisco in Research Triangle Park. Notice the presence of "authors", "engineers" and "research" in one sentence... a fearful combination to say the least. Buckle up, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

My Reading Experience:
I set out to read this book as an attempt to get an understanding of QOS for my CCIE studies. Oops, Rich didn't read the fine print. This book isn't really so much a book about QOS concepts in general as it is an implementation guide for utilizing QOS on a Catalyst network. Works out okay for me, though, because my company runs 4000 and 6500 series Catalysts and the information will prove quite useful as we roll out QOS. For my CCIE studies, however, I will still need to pick up a book that is somewhat more general, like maybe the Cisco DQOS Exam Certification Guide or Cisco IOS 12.0 Quality of Service. Luckily for me, the book spends the first 2 chapters teaching the underlying QOS concepts for the features that are discussed in the remainder of the book. After the first 2 chapters, the Fundamentals section is finished up with a 2-chapter overview of the QOS support on the various Catalyst platforms.

Part 2 of the book presents QOS implementation on the various Catalyst platforms. I believe the intention of the authors was for the reader to only read the specific chapters in part 2 that pertained to the specific equipment they'd be using. I say this because the chapters repeat a lot of the same information. From the standpoint of this being an implementation guide, it's good that each chapter stands on its own and you don't have to read the entire book to get an understanding of QOS as it applies to your particular Catalyst platform.

The thing that makes this book unique, and the thing which I liked most about it, is the in-depth coverage of the Catalyst 6500 series. There is a chapter dedicated to 6500 by itself, which shows both hybrid and native commands for all the QOS functions. There is also a chapter that focuses on the 6500 MSFC and Flexwan modules. The last time I checked, there was exactly one book that I knew of that had any info about the 6500, Cisco LAN Switching (CCIE Professional Development series). Since my network uses 6509's with MSFC2 and FlexWAN cards, I found those chapters to be extremely useful and will be using them to implement QOS.

If I seem wishy-washy about this title, it's because I am. My recommendation depends upon what you want to accomplish. If you want to learn QOS concepts, I'd recommend reading something else, like the Cisco DQOS Exam Certification Guide. If you're actually implementing QOS in a Catalyst network, I'd recommend this book. The writing is just a little too dry and the examples are a little too abstract. I would have liked to have seen more real-world examples in plain English. Using my 5-ping rating scale, I'll give Cisco Catalyst QOS three pings - two for the beginning of the book, and one for the 6500 coverage.

!!..!

The book is an excellent reference on a complex subject of Catalyst QoS.The book discusses QoS on all cisco catalyst platforms and analytically compare features of different products.I beleive it is a first book that discusses QoS on Catalyst Swicthes and provides information about all platforms in one place. It is a very useful book and customers implenting QoS in Campuses will find it very helpful.

Salman Zahid