PPP Design and Debugging [Paperback]

James Carlson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201185393 | ISBN-13: 978-0201185393 | Publication Date: December 19, 1997

Now, the industry's #1 hands-on PPP developer's guide has been updated to reflect the latest PPP advances, including SONET/SDH, optical PPP links, the use of PPP in telecommunications, and Linux-based PPP implementation -- a topic of exceptionally hot interest. In this book, leading network software architect James Carlson explains how PPP links operate, in depth, so developers can build more effective PPP implementations, and troubleshoot failures more effectively. Readers will learn how to implement and extend PPP in many environments, including Linux and UNIX. Carlson introduces PPP's growing role in telecommunications, including optical PPP links, PPP's relationship with SONET/SDH, and more. He also explains PPP's relationships to OSPF and other protocols, including PPP/L2TP integration in virtual private networks. The accompanying CD-ROM contains an extensive PPP resource library, including all relevant RFCs, several PPP implementations, and other PPP-related documentation.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

An excellent companion to the official standards documents, this comprehensive book covers PPP in depth, from the bits and bytes transmitted up through its connections to other networking software. It shows how to keep PPP running smoothly and efficiently, and offers the most detailed information available on debugging PPP and maintaining uninterrupted network connections.

This convenient volume follows PPP through its three main functions: connecting, authenticating, and sending data to the network. It provides an overview of PPP design and operation‹including link-level transmission and reception of data‹as well as a look at how PPP works with other networking protocols. Each PPP protocol is described in depth, including: LCP (Link Control Protocol); the network layer protocols that communicate with IP, AppleTalk, SNA, OSI, and others; CCP (Compression Control Protocol) and ECP (Encryption Control Protocol). In addition, the increasingly important topic of bandwidth management is discussed.

You will find thorough coverage of PPP debugging techniques that show you how to isolate and solve connection problems. In particular, the book examines a topic of critical concern: how to get packet traces out of common PPP implementations. Plenty of code, implementation strategies, and expert advice throughout make this book an invaluable resource for anyone who works with PPP.

0201185393B04062001

About the Author

James Carlson is a member of the Solaris Networking group at Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he is working on the next generation of PPP implementation for Solaris . Previously he held positions at IronBridge Networks, Bay Networks (Xylogics), and Data General. Mr. Carlson has a M.S./C.S. from Boston University and a B.S./E.E. from Carnegie-Mellon. 0201185393AB04062001

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (December 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201185393
• ISBN-13: 978-0201185393
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,930,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars right on the mark, May 22, 1998

By 

Marco Polo (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PPP Design and Debugging (Paperback)

The author motivates the design of the PPP protocol extremely well, and provides an intelligible roadmap to the RFCs and the vendor-specific "standards". Beyond that, he carefully points out shortcomings and misfeatures in various pieces of the PPP design and in various common PPP implementations, making the book far more useful and interesting than a "mere" reference on the subject would have been. (Not surprisingly, the shortcomings tend to exist in the proprietary PPP variants and implementations rather than in the open-standard and open-source ones...)

If your only reason for picking up the book is because you want to understand the difference between SLIP and PPP, you'll get more than you bargained for. But if you want or need to understand how PPP works, I can't imagine a better book than this one. The author guides the reader through the highly technical subject matter with satisfying authority. His delivery is strengthened by the exceptional editing and presentation of the publishers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential background and overview, February 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: PPP Design and Debugging (Paperback)

This book provides essential background and overview for PPP. It provides the glue that is needed to bring together all of the many RFCs and standards that comprise PPP. I recently started working on developing a PPP implementation. I'd been "out" of PPP for about a year and spending a few hours reading this book brought me up to date, saving days of reading and cross-checking RFCs, trying to figure out what is and is not relevant.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PPP explained and more.., July 26, 2000

By 

Jeremy - See all my reviews

This review is from: PPP Design and Debugging (Paperback)

During my first job right out of grad school, I needed to debug PPP a lot on cisco routers and it gave me a good understanding of the subject.

Cisco's web site has enough info on debuggin PPP and this books goes in conjuction with it along with the relevant RFCs. I didnt find any other book addressing the debugging issues addressed in this book.

This book truly shows what an elegant protocol PPP is.

James is also an active contributor on the PPP news group and could be great help if you have questions!