Amazon.com Review
As one of the most cost-effective ways to get large quantities of data across a plain pair of copper strands, digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies have proven popular among service providers.
Design and Implementation of DSL-Based Access Solutions explores various flavors of DSL (collectively known as xDSL) as successful broadband service providers typically implement them. The DSL variants are compared and contrasted, and authors Sanjeev Mervana and Chris Le detail the equipment and strategies for implementing each. As you'd expect, emphasis falls on Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (DSLAMs) and other equipment from Cisco Systems--there are more than a few Internetwork Operating System command listings--but the authors' treatment is sufficiently general to be useful in situations that don't involve Cisco gear. Their primer material is notably good, too, so consider this volume if you're interesting in coming up to speed on DSL for the first time.
As is the case with most Cisco Press books, this one has excellent "hockey puck" diagrams that show which bits of a DSL system connect to which others. Also in line with a lot of its series-mates, this book lays the acronyms on thick, and you'll have to consult the index if you don't understand one and don't read straight through (all the terms and acronyms are defined, but usually only once). You'll appreciate the care the authors take in explaining their technologies in terms of real-world requirements (more than a few scenarios described here seem to have been taken from actual service provider design jobs). --David Wall
Topics covered: Digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, including ADSL, VDSL, IDSL, SDSL, and G.SHDSL, and means of delivering them to customers. Bridging under RFC 1483, Routed Bridge Encapsulation (RBE), PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE), PPP over ATM (PPPoA), and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) as they apply to DSL are all covered. Case studies explore some service provider situations and a virtual private network (VPN) scheme.
From the Back Cover
The ultimate DSL deployment guides and reference Teaches the reader how to design and implement the network to offer services such as voice, video, and dataExplains the various access and core architectures for xDSL technologies Details how to do mass provisioning and how to manage an end-to-end network Includes case studies that depict some of the most common deployed architectures, how they evolved, problems they faced, and how they were overcome Design and Implementation of DSL-Based Access Solutions addresses various architectures for DSL-based networks. It focuses on how to design and implement an end-to-end solution for service providers, considering various business models such as retail, wholesale, VPN, etc. This book depicts the different architectures, and helps you understand the key design principles in deploying them. It covers both access encapsulations such as bridging, PPPoA, PPPoE, and routing, as well as core architectures such as IP, L2TP, MPLS/VPN, and ATM. Because it focuses on end-to-end solutions, Design and Implementation of DSL-Based Access Solutions talks about how to do mass provisioning of subscribers and how to manage networks in the most efficient way. It also includes discussions of real-life deployments, their design-related issues, and their implementation.
