Cisco Switched Internetworks: VLANs, ATM & Voice/Data Integration [Paperback]

Chris Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0071346465 | ISBN-13: 978-0071346467 | Edition: 1

New from the best-selling author of McGraw-HIll's Cisco TCP/IP Professional Reference, a detailed, real-world view of how to actually use, understand, and implement the Cisco Catalyst switch family of hardware and software.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Chris Lewis has done the Cisco community yet another favor by writing Cisco Switched Internetworks. This volume backs up the Internet Protocol (IP) material he presented in his earlier (and very highly regarded) Cisco TCP/IP Routing Professional Reference.

In Cisco Switched Internetworks, Lewis applies his trademark thoroughness and clarity to switched systems, explaining how Cisco products work as part of switched virtual local area networks (VLANs) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) schemes in general. He also provides plenty of information about the theory and design of switched connections among networks. Before getting into the details of Cisco implementations, he explains LAN switching and provides lots of detail on the various ways (including RFC 1577 and LAN emulation) of implementing wide area networks (WANs) by encapsulating TCP/IP information in ATM network traffic.

But this book really earns its place on your shelf with its Cisco-specific implementation information. Lewis provides explicit hardware and software configuration information for the Cisco 5000 series, 5500 series, and 2916XL. While they're not exactly recipes, the discussions and listings presented here will help you build robust switched networks. One particularly interesting passage has to do with implementing voice over IP (VoIP) on the Cisco MC3810, complete with a connection to a PBX. --David Wall

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (June 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071346465
• ISBN-13: 978-0071346467
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,194,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I like Chris Lewis book, but....., September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cisco Switched Internetworks: VLANs, ATM & Voice/Data Integration (Paperback)

I thought a book about LAN or VLAN would be an easy and joyful read, but apparently my predominantly 10/100BaseT/router/netware/NT background find the going a bit rough. The first 3 chapters almost kill my will to continue reading, with the portion on ATM particularly hard - having not seen an ATM network before - although on my 6th attempt I manage to make some sense out of it. I would still appreciate a more thorough treatment with careful explanation with fine examples plus nice diagram to explain firstly "why ATM", then the obstacle/challenge of having data/voice/video all on the same ATM network. However, if you can understand the first 3 chapters ( which I don't ) dealing mainly with the theory part - you will see the famous Chris Lewis magic resurface on Chapter 4 when he lead you from the moment you power up a new Catalyst switch till you build a network out of it. I cannot give this book anything less than 5 stars - but from Chris Lewis I expect a dozen stars, and my disappointment is real. Interesting enough, in TCP/IP routing almost no mention is made of token ring, but this book does spend some pages on token ring VLAN. May be Chris want to try another approach in the next edition - use a real example ( which is always easier to understand than theoritical mambo-jambo) to show how ATM can marvalously integrate voice/data/video together, then explain the intricacy/theory behind ATM - instead of hitting us with some 3D model of ATM and make me wonder whether I have sufficient IQ to understand the rest of the book. Amen.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great if you already know what he's talking about, October 26, 1999

By 

Edmund Mcguigan "Ed McGuigan" (Boynton Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco Switched Internetworks: VLANs, ATM & Voice/Data Integration (Paperback)

As with one of the other reviewers I am currently languishing in the confusion of the 1st few chapters. Basically I think the author is trying to cover too much ground too quickly and is assuming a level of knowledge which I don't have. If I had it I wouldn't be reading this book.

This is in fact rather similar to his other book, Cisco TCP/IP Routing Professional Reference. While I followed the theory in that book I remember thinking that no novice would have a hope of grasping such a terse exposition of TCP/IP fundamentals.

I'll carry on plugging away and maybe add a final review. The major difference here though is that there don't seem to be any other books where one can find a more approachable explanation of the basics of LAN Switching technologies. Therefore I wish he had slowed down somewhat.

I really don't believe the book deserves the 5 stars awarded by other reviewers unless there's pure gold from Chapter 4 on.

1 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 500 stars for Chris Lewis's books, March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cisco Switched Internetworks: VLANs, ATM & Voice/Data Integration (Paperback)

I need not review this book and know straight away that it is a 5 star material. I have gone through Chris Lewis previous book "Cisco TCP/IP Routing Professional Reference" and find him a really, truely, absolutely 100% enlightening guru. I am now eating up Slattery and Burton's book "Advanced IP routing in Cisco Network" and when comparing the 2 books,I realise another important aspect of Chris's book - he included the right kind of material in one single source with appropriate chapters on FrameRelay, ISDN, IPX, bridge, how to recover password lost and upgrade IOS etc, many troubleshooting insights - one you can carry around in your car for instant help.