Customer Reviews

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few months ago, I needed to quickly re-educate myself about Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ). I have a bunch of networking texts on my bookshelf, but I automatically reached for the first edition of Peterson & Davie. I got what I needed: a clear, thorough, yet self-contained discussion. I even got a little extra from the text, which pointed me at other related topics and raised some open problems.

It's true that several of those other books cover WFQ, but I've learned over the last few years that I might as well start with Peterson & Davie, because I usually end up there. They cover almost all of the interesting topics in computer networks, and at just the right level of depth for a quick introduction or refresher. (The authors wrote this as a textbook, and I don't doubt that it would also be an excellent foundation for a graduate level course.) I'm glad to see the second edition, because they've included new material, as well as expanding some of the existing coverage.

This is not the book for exhaustive and definitive coverage of every network protocol; to get a fuller story, readers should turn to the concise list of references cited at the end of each chapter. (In fact, I found at least one mistake in their coverage of HTTP, an example that simply won't work, which is repeated in exercise 24 of chapter 9 -- some students might find this confusing.) But into a book that one can actually lift, Peterson and Davie have crammed a remarkable breadth and depth of detail, written with a clarity often missing from the primary source material.

I used this book for two courses that I taught: One was for a graduate course at Carnegie-Mellon University and the other was for a group of Software Engineers in a startup company. The students in both setting overwhelmingly liked this book. I carefully considered about dozen books before selecting this book. The organization of the book is very logical and makes even the difficult concept very simple for the students to understand. This is the way to write computer networks textbooks.

I am a marketing professional and was asked to read this book by a client. Needless to say, the prospect of wading through a dry, historical summary of how computer networks arrived at their current state was less than appealing. I was pleasantly surprised, however, right from the beginning. The writing is clear and while it does cover certain topics in more detail than I required I wasn't penalized for glossing over them. This book is something rare, a great introduction to the topic for laypersons and a detailed examination of how networks have evolved and where they will likely go in the future. I read it a few months back and find myself still using it as a reference since almost every term catalogued in the index is explained at several levels in the text. Simply put, this book is well written and easily read, a rarity in this field.

This book is ideal for people who know a little bit about networking. If you have studied from Stallings and/or Tanenbaum, then you will appreciate it even more. For a beginner, this might look difficult. But persistence will pay off handsomely.

The book explains how real world networks are built. Both software and hardware issues are discussed nicely. I can think of no better book that talks about the entire field of networking in general and yet manages to give a good amount of information of the real world. Go get it NOW!

A comprehensive textbook for undergraduate/graduate students. The book is complete with basic coverage to different types of networks and their working. Treatment to TCP and other Internet protocols well explained with pseudo code for different algorithms. Various extensions to TCP and network security basics well covered. The book does lack some mathematical treatment to the subject which could have improved the content.

There's little question that networks are more important now than they ever have been. This book is perfect for anyone who wants a broad understanding of computer networks, both of their history and evolution, and important issues today. If you're looking for a text covering network programming, look elsewhere, since most of the code samples are only there for illustrative purposes, and are thus brief or incomplete. Instead, what you'll find here is extensive coverage of issues involved with network design, such as network protocols, security issues, congestion control, routing algorithms, link-level technologies, and more. Although the reading can be slow at times, given the somewhat theoretical nature of the subject, overall the authors have done a great job of keeping the discussion interesting and relevant. Of special note were the end-of-chapter discussions of unresolved issues facing today's network architects and designers.

All in all, if you want to gain an understanding of computer networks, this book will provide a great foundation to build upon.

I think it is a comprehensive and outstanding book. It covers all I want about computer networks.So far, I think it is the best general book on computer networks.

The materials contain is quite up-to-date. Ihe content is organized in a good way. From the network foundation knowledge to internetworking, even also talk about networking security, application.

You can find more information about packet switching and internetworking in this book. I would appreciate the part of "congestion control and resource allocation". It really gives me much information about it.

It is easy to read. I think it is suitable for beginner who want a general full picture about computer networking. Although it is not a practical but theoretical book, I am still pleased to read it, at least it does not make me fall asleep.

We use this book in an introductory communications course at the University of Oslo. The book is great for beginners - easy to read, with good examples and lots of informative illustrations. Some prior knowledge of C programming is recommended however, as many of the practical examples are written in C. If you want to know a little about everything in the field of communications, then this book is a must have. If you primarily want to make network applications then you will find the book lacking in detail and will be needing additional information.

This book is amazing. It provides you both with theoritical tools needed to study and understand the field of Computer Networks as well as the code to look into the implementation issues.

Starting with very basic assumptions, this book carefully explains the challenges that naturally arise when you try to connect all the computers in the world together. It explains the solutions, of course, but never without giving a good description of the problems they are solving, which I find essential to understanding. You end up knowing the why of everything and how it all fits. Too many books start out in the middle, leaving me wondering why. The writing is about as clear as possible. A great book if you want to understand networking. If instead, you just want to configure a system or implement some code, this is not the book.