Customer Reviews

Data Networks

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written by two MIT masters, this is the best tech. book I have read, ever. I first read it slowly yet seriously in my first graduate year; now four years later, after obtaining my PhD in networking, I still discover new ideas or technical points (or some I just overlooked) out of the book, from time to time.

Look back, I am amazed how precisely they commented on ATM when it was that hot. Also, as a 1992 book, it is amazing that the book was so up-to-date as the Parekh/Gallager results on WFQ were seriously discussed in Ch. 6, even before the results were formally published and eventually won IEEE paper awards. Today WFQ is one of the most well-known, if not the most well-known, algorithms in networking...

For strict yet accessible treatment on flow control and routing, you can find no book elsewhere that can both illustrate the existing ideas and trigger/stimulate your own ideas...

Well, I dare to say I did not find any single sentence in the book that I felt redundant/vague. Probably the only network book better than this one would be its 3rd edition, which unfortunately we do not know if/when will come out.

Warning: if you don't like/appreciate rigorous math thinking, probably you can safely skip this book.

I bought this book at 2002, 10 years after the publishing.
I read as text book of networkin protocol.
Especially, slotted multiaccess and aloha system.
My PhD paper was based on delay models in data networsk such as section 3.
Thanks.

I read this book during my graduate course in EE ten years ago. It requires good background in mathematics (maybe a little more than a freshman calculus), but as a result you learn the topic with a solid fundemental, and good mathematical modelling. For anybody who deals with communication networks (in theory or practically) this book should be on his/her shelf.

Nice book. I received it on very fair price as well. I am happy with this deal. :)

'Data Networks' proves an excellent source for Delay/Queue Models, Routing concepts and Flow Control. Most Topics cover concepts as well as provide research material. A Great reference and study text.

This is really the kind of book you would like if you are intersted in learning the fundemantals of data networks as well as if you are trying to understand the idea in the network optimization and network analysis and performance

This is definitely not a book for understanding the Internet routing protocols, plus its content is at least 10 years out-of-date. However, it provides a very nice treatment of mathematical modeling of various aspects of networks, from link layer to transport layer. This is rarely available in a "current" networking textbook. If you are interesting in this part, this is an invaluable textbook as well as a reference.

This book covers the very foundations of data communications for the design engineer. It contains some intense mathematics in some areas, but if you've had high quality college math (year of calculus and some engineering type math), you can handle it. The queueing theory, multiaccess theory (ALOHA to ethernet and beyond), and optimal routing theory are actually foundations for many aspects of data comm. If you're in datacomm and don't have a solid education in that area, this book is for you.

I higherly recommend this book to anyone who is serious in the data networking area. You do need a lot math to appreciate the book, but I guess that's the only way to really understand data networking also. And, don't be scared by the math, if you sit down, follow through the math carefully, you will find the math in this book is clearly presented and easy to understand.

This book, while it may be a somewhat useful reference tool, is the epitome of a worthless textbook. A good, comprehensive textbook is well organized, explains concepts thoroughly and provides worked theoretical and numerical examples. This book fails on all 3 points. It seems the authors are so full of themselves that they can't stoop to the level of proving anything stated in the book. Virtually all proofs in this book are left as end of the chapter exercises. This begs one question: If I could work the proofs of all the problems in this book why would I buy the book in the first place? This books is yet another example of a textbook written by university professors who don't know how to explain concepts to students. Notice the fact that most of the positive reviews for this book are from people well versed in the topic - those in industry or those pursuing PhD's on the topic. This is indicative of the fact that this book is NOT for beginners. Also, the title is misleading - this book is strictly on mathmatical models of data networks. Anyone looking for specifics of any data networking scheme should certainly look elsewhere.