Customer Reviews

Layer 3 Switching: A Guide for It Professionals (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems)

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As the name suggests, the book is more inclined towards marketing types. The book is not that technical and addresses the technology aspects of layer 3 switching using different vendor's implementations. The case studies aren't really practical. Given the recent advances in IETF standards in label switching, this book is little outdated.

A little disappointing work for Metz, whose previous book was titled, IP switching.

Bottom line, if you are developing the code you won't extract much out of it but it is good for sales/marketing people.

What I liked best about this book is near the back. I could show it to less technical people and talk about technology trends, and some vendor approaches. For marketers and decision makers. It doesn't really help with network design. It is also missing some other key points with respect to decision making.

In this book, he really explains how Layer 3 switching is different than routing. He ends with a comprehensive overview of how several companies responded to a hypothetical lan problem (bottleneck etc..). 3COM responded with a CB3500 solution. Cisco responded with the 5000. Several other vendors responded with technology avail. at that time. Yes, the book is a bit outdated (market surveys and available technology are from 1997), but the theories presented remain current. I recommend to those trying to compare L3 to routing.

If you are researching Layer 3 swithing and need some good references this could be your book. However if you actually want to make a descision wether or not to implement it, or how to implement layer 3, skip this book altogether. Much better book are out there for people who actually have to implement this technology.