Customer Reviews

Linux Networking Architecture

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

 

 

This book is marred by pretty bad translation from the original German edition. It takes a while to figure out that the translator is more an English major struggling with intricate computer science terminologies than a fellow programmer. For example, device "base address" is translated to device "basic address" in chapter 5, multiple times; "re-compile the entire kernel" miraculously becomes "retranslate the entire kernel" in chapter 2.

There are also quite a bit of misleading typos. Like "ip_input()" appears multiple times in the discussion of chapter 14, although no such function exists in the code. Actually, the correct term should have been "ip_input.c" - referring to a file, not a function.

It is a major triumph for a German book on Linux network stack to be translated to English by a major publisher; my guess is the German version is well written and well received. This probably means that the English translation/editing is the main culprit.

Other than the cryptic translation and typos, the book does quite detailed code walkthroughs in the Linux network stack. It traces the function calls as an incoming packet enters the Linux kernel from the device driver, and as an outgoing packet propagates down from the higher protocols. The stack uses a lot of function pointers and this makes reading the code quite difficult unless a book like this tells you what function the pointer is pointing to. This, I feel, is the redeeming feature of the book, especially when you are diving deep into the code. There are a bit of code insights described here and there throughout the book, but generally such passages are few and far between, amidst the voluminous mechanical description of who calls who in the code; nothing compares to the kind of insights in Robert Love's "Linux Kernel Development" book.

I would suggest that you look at the "Linux TCP/IP Stack" book by Herbert first, then try this one if you really need help tracing the code.

I found this book to be a useful introduction to the Linux TCP/IP stack but the book could be better.

It was not the translation that I found to be problematic in this book. I found the flaws in translation to be at worst a minor annoyance and at times even amusing. I have two major problems with this book. First, I found the book to be poorly organized. Second, too much of the book is devoted to describing individual functions and data structures and not enough of the book is devoted to how the various pieces fit together and interact.

The book is organized more-or-less based on the network layers. This is a logical organization but it means the reader must take detours through chapters on SLIP, ATM, and Bluetooth which are hardly the mainstream protocols that most readers are interested in. The chapter on PPP often referred back to material in the SLIP chapter, making it hard to just skip this chapter. ARP is covered after a description of IPv4. Later in the chapter on Packet Filters and Firewalls several pages are devoted to ipchains as implemented in version 2.2 of the Linux kernel which was replaced by the netfilter architecture that is currently in use.

In spite of these flaws I found this book to be a useful guide to understanding the Linux networking software. The book is thorough, covering everything from transparent bridging to sockets programming. The appendices provide useful supplemental material on navigating the source code, tools and commands for network operation, and some code examples.

I did not give this book a 5-star rating only because it does not cover the latest 2.6 kernel. There are quite a few changes in the networking subsystem, nevertheless, there are lot of useful information in this book.

The books covers all protocols (not only TCP/IP). It provides the theoretical background along with the step-by-step technical explanation of the implementation code in Linux.

It covers the Linux implementation of SLIP, PPP, PPP over Ethernet, ATM, Bluetooth, Bridges, TCP/IP, ARP, NAT and even Ipv6.

It is a must to read for anyone interested in Linux Networking and the TCP/IP implementation in Linux.

This book is an incredible explanation of the Linux implementations of networking. The book covers all levels of networking from the driver to TCP and UDP. The book cites specific functions from the source and explains what they do. The book walks through the kernel structures and identifies the purpose of each variable. I highly recomend this book for linux kernel programmers!

Overall this is a very good book on a topic
that is not well documented elsewhere. Well written
and easy to read. Lots of diagrams showing code
flow which was very helpful for digesting the
information. The only caveat is that this book
does not cover more recent 2.6 kernel (e.g. no discussion
of NAPI). Such is the problem with linux books, by
the time these books are published the code
has changed significantly. Regardless this book
is still worth buying if you need to understand
linux network architecture and the source code.

I second "science-buff" below: the book is clearly very good, but you should read it in German. The English translation is very poor, the text is unreadable. What a shame.

Comprehensive content and nicely structured. Each subject is described functionally first, at the user level, followed by its implementation in the Linux kernel or userland. The book is available also free online, however I wanted to have my own copy for notes, highlights, etc. Overall, I find it as a good introduction to networking in the linux environment.