Customer Reviews

Network Architecture and Development Series: Designing Routing and Switching Architectures

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

 

 

Delightful might seem like a strange word to describe a technical book, but it's exactly what I mean to say. I find myself being delighted with Howard's unique way of presenting the essence of a network technology. I hear myself say "ah hah, that's what all that incomprehensible text in those other books meant!" Howard uses analogies and real-life examples to ensure that the reader really understands the basics and the details. Great book for learning routing and switching architecture design.

I really like this book. Despite a slight tendancy to ramble, Berkowitz style is very enjoyable, humourous at times, and he explains everything in detail. This is a book geared towrds understanding the concepts of routing and switching, rather than analyzing everything from the manufacturers viewpoint. As a result, you get a firm understanding of the fundamentals. Where appropriate, he does discuss manufacturer specific design/philosphy (e.g. cisco, nortel, etc.), but for the most part it's completely independent of that. Hence, this is useful regardless of what gear you're using. This is a must for every network engineer's library.

This book is incredible. Howard speaks with a voice of absolute authority. He presents all sides of the issues and leaves the reader to come to his/her own conclusions. He is obviously a master of his craft, and reading this book is sheer pleasure. It would be a fantastic book if it was comprised of dry text and facts, but that's far from the case: this book was written by a man who understands the writer's prerogative to keep his audience awake and entertained. To my knowledge a better book on network design does not exist. Highest recommendation.

This book discusses most aspects of network design to an impressive level of detail. No fast answers are given as is appropriate for a design book. The author's approach is such that he immediately commands the readers respect and from what I have seen is only matched by Cormac Long's design book. The only gripe I might have is that I found the style a tad long-winded at times, since I personally prefer books to be as concise as possible.

this book has cleared up a lot of clouds in my mind about Internetworking concept as well as router/switch issues. Thanks, Howard.