Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet [Hardcover]

James F. Kurose (Author), Keith W. Ross (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201477114 | ISBN-13: 978-0201477115 | Publication Date: July 10, 2000

By starting at the application-layer and working down to the protocol stack, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet provides a motivational treatment of important concepts for networking students. Based on the rationale that once a student understands the applications of networks they can understand the network services needed to support these applications, this book takes a "top-down" approach where students are first exposed to a concrete application and then drawn into some of the deeper issues of networking. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet focuses on the Internet as opposed to addressing it as just one of many computer network technologies. Students are enormously curious about what is "under the hood" of the Internet, creating an extremely motivational vehicle for teaching fundamental computer networking concepts. This text features a comprehensive companion website which includes the entire text online. It allows for direct access to some of the best Internet sites relating to computer networks and Internet protocols.The website has many interactive features, including direct access to the Traceroute program, direct access to search engines for Internet Drafts, Java applets that animate difficult concepts, and direct streaming audio. Finally, the website makes it possible to update the material to keep up-to-date with this rapidly changing field.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Certain data-communication protocols hog the spotlight, but all of them have a lot in common. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet explains the engineering problems that are inherent in communicating digital information from point to point. The top-down approach mentioned in the subtitle means that the book starts at the top of the protocol stack--at the application layer--and works its way down through the other layers, until it reaches bare wire.

The authors, for the most part, shun the well-known seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol stack in favor of their own five-layer (application, transport, network, link, and physical) model. It's an effective approach that helps clear away some of the hand waving traditionally associated with the more obtuse layers in the OSI model. The approach is definitely theoretical--don't look here for instructions on configuring Windows 2000 or a Cisco router--but it's relevant to reality, and should help anyone who needs to understand networking as a programmer, system architect, or even administration guru.

The treatment of the network layer, at which routing takes place, is typical of the overall style. In discussing routing, authors James Kurose and Keith Ross explain (by way of lots of clear, definition-packed text) what routing protocols need to do: find the best route to a destination. Then they present the mathematics that determine the best path, show some code that implements those algorithms, and illustrate the logic by using excellent conceptual diagrams. Real-life implementations of the algorithms--including Internet Protocol (both IPv4 and IPv6) and several popular IP routing protocols--help you to make the transition from pure theory to networking technologies. --David Wall

Topics covered: The theory behind data networks, with thorough discussion of the problems that are posed at each level (the application layer gets plenty of attention). For each layer, there's academic coverage of networking problems and solutions, followed by discussion of real technologies. Special sections deal with network security and transmission of digital multimedia.

From the Publisher

Networking is much more than dry standards specifying message formats and protocol behaviors. Kurose and Ross focus on teaching the emerging principles of the field and then illustrate these principles with examples drawn from Internet architecture. The discussion is lively, engaging, topical, and up-to-date.

This book features a top-down organization with an early emphasis on applications. Studying application-level protocols first allows students to gain an intuitive feel for network protocols. The focus on application-layer paradigms (e.g., client server) and application programming interfaces allows students to get their "hands dirty" early-studying and implementing protocols in the context of applications they use daily. Proceeding though the layered network architecture in a top-down manner, one can first focus on the network services that are needed and then, in turn, study how these services can be provided.

This book provides a modern treatment of computer networking. 20 years ago, the HDLC protocol was considered "high-level." Today, there is an emphasis on services, applications and their transport needs, scalability, heterogeneity, performance, security, and manageability. This emphasis, which is driving today's advances, is woven throughout the book.

Each copy of this book comes with a prepaid six-month subscription to a companion website. This site includes the full text with an advanced searching feature and a hyper-linked index, Java applets to help demonstrate difficult concepts, links to up-to-date material, and complete supplements for qualified instructors of courses.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 712 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company (July 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201477114
• ISBN-13: 978-0201477115
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is a pleasure to read., March 4, 2001

By 

PigRoasterDad (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (Hardcover)

Our course, Networking and Data Communications, was assigned to me in the eleventh hour. Though I have been teaching Computer Science for 22 years I had not taught this course before. I chose this book because it seemed to be well written and had good support materials but, as we all know, there is no guarantee that the students will agree.

The course is over now and I just received the student evaluations of me, the text and the course. They were much better than I hoped for and I give the bulk of the credit to this textbook. Here are the three written comments from students regarding the book

"Book was good, approach was beneficial."

"The book for this course [Kurose,2000] was excellent. I recommend keeping it."

"The book was very useful, but the website could use some work."

Students are also asked to rate the book on a scale from 1 (difficult to understand) to 5 (Clear and easy to read). The book was rated as follows by the 22 students in the class: 8 fives, 13 fours, 1 three, 1 two and no ones. As an instructor, I found the book to be well written and well edited. Rarely did I find errors in the text and most of those that I did find were typographical errors. I found the web site to be especially useful. The discussions by other readers pointed out things to watch out for and gave me an easy way to make general preparations well in advance. I had my students do the first three lab assignments. They especially liked the two application layer assignments and had a good bit of trouble with the transport layer assignment. I found the supplied code to be well organized and the parts that were left out for the students to complete challenged them (and me) in the right directions. The approach of focusing on Internet networking was an excellent choice for an introduction to networking. The choice to start at the application layer and move down to the physical layer is natural and understandable. It drives home the whole idea of layered architectures well and is a great example of the power of top-down approaches.

I will follow the advice of the student that recommends we keep this text when I teach the course next year.

As any reader of this might guess, I highly recommend this text and ancillary materials for an introductory course in networking. I congratulate the authors and all that helped them on this project for the fine work they did.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The search is over, January 1, 2002

By 

John Dean (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (Hardcover)

I've taught Park University's Computer Networking course four times now and I've used four different textbooks. I'm very happy with my most recent choice - Kurose/Ross's Computer Networking. The Kurose/Ross textbook is everything I've been looking for.

Our computer networking course is an overview of networking. Many of the textbooks on the market are overly mathematical or overly business-oriented. This one is just right. Personally, I love Tanenbaum's networking textbook, but I have to admit that this one is better suited for an introductory networking course.

I thought that the PowerPoint slides were pretty good, but I still didn't use them much because I'm ultra-picky about my lecture presentation and I thought that I needed to write my own slides for added clarity.

Positive attributes:
1. Emphasis on the Internet and the Internet protocol stack. As the authors point out, that makes for a more relevant model than the old OSI model. Students can more easily get a handle on the Internet protocol stack model.
2. Great website.
3. Well written.
4. Great content. Lots of detail when you need it, but it introduces difficult concepts in a manner that is not overwhelming.
5. Good homework problems. I haven't tried the programming excercises because my students didn't know Java, but next time I teach the course, the students will know Java and I plan to use the programming assignments.
6. Great response from the authors. I enquired about a typo and Keith Ross replied the same day with appropriate help.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Treat for students and educators, June 16, 2001

By 

Martin Reisslein (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (Hardcover)

This is a great introductory networking text. Kurose and Ross acknowledge that today, when we talk about "Computer Networking", we are really talking about the "Internet". They explain computer networking using the Internet as a guiding light. Besides being a great textbook for an introductory networking course, the book is highly recommended for anyone interested in learning what makes the Internet "tick".

Kurose and Ross' writing is direct, to the point, and easy to follow. Oftentimes, networking principles are explained with human analogies, which really help in getting the point across. Kurose and Ross manage to convey the principles of computer networking (often considered "dry" material) in a technically precise yet entertaining way. A good measure of humorous bits and off-the-cuff remarks are sprinkled throughout the text, making the reading fun (students love it).

Interesting sidebars on the history of the Internet and the implementation of networking principles in practice provide additional background. The book features interviews with the very people who designed the principles upon which the Internet is built. The interviews add to the "entertainment value" and lend the book a sense of authenticity.

The book is accompanied by a great web site (password comes with the book), which provides valuable web links and applets to play around with. There are also on-line quizzes, which are graded automatically and allow students to test their knowledge. These web features are especially helpful for distance learning students. The authors also provide a full set of lecture slides, which are an invaluable resource for instructors.

In summary, a highly recommended book, learning about computer networking has never been more exciting and fascinating.