Routing and Switching: time of convergence [Hardcover]

Rita Puzmanova (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2001

This book, Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence?, aims to help users, network designers and technicians, and IT decision makers, in their proper understanding of the interconnecting possibilities of today and potential for tomorrow (which may come more quickly than we might have thought yesterday). The book provides a detailed explanation of all related principles, starting from an overview of communication networks, through the operation of Layer 2 internetworking devices - bridges and switches, the latter both in LANs and WANs - to the operation of Layer 3 devices - routers. This book devotes more time to more complex routing technologies and their application in IP and non-IP environments, such as (still present) Novell IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, (very slowly penetrating) OSI, (almost forgotten but not completely) DecNet, Banyan VINES, and (where it all started) XNS.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

 9 780201 398618  ISBN 0-201-39861-3  ROUTING AND SWITCHING  Rita Puz¢manová  Networking technologies have penetrated into almost everyone's life, both at work and at  home. Different types of underlying technologies have emerged and there is hardly any simple or single-vendor corporate network or internet. The way in which network segments are interconnected has become a challenge for network planners, not only to fulfil current business requirements, but also to allow for future extension and development.  Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence? presents a comparison of the two leadingand complementary techniques for interconnecting networks. If you are a network designer, technician or IT decision maker, this book will prove invaluable. It will give you a comprehensive knowledge of the interconnecting possibilities today and potential for the future. Starting from the lowest layers upwards, you will gain knowledge of network interconnections (using bridges, switches, routers or gateways) and will finally reach the advanced stages, giving you a full understanding of the most imminent issues of today's networks, such as QoL, MPLS and optical switching.  This book contains:

• Up-to-date overview of interconnecting technologies
• Technology guidelines for network designers
• Exploration as to how far the integration of routing and switching will reach
• Detailed technical background of all routing, switching (LAN and WAN) and bridging aspects
• TCP/IP orientation with a glance at other architectures, including Novell NetWare, OSI and DECnet
• Discussion on advanced aspects of QoS support (DiffServ, IntServ) and operations of label switching (MPLS), and recent developments in optical switching.

About the author: Rita Puz¢manová is an independent interworking specialist, instructor and writer. She has developed and taught networking courses to world-wide audience for almost ten years and has become involved in on-line web education in the networking field. She is the author of several books, has written numerous articles for technical magazines and has presented papers at international conferences and seminars.

About the Author

   Rita Puùzmanová, PhD, MBA, is an independent internetworking expert, course developer and trainer. She holds an MSc in systems engineering while her PhD is in telecommunications. As a Cisco Systems' affiliated consultant and instructor, she keeps abreast of the developments in networking technologies. She completed her MBA with the University of Calgary, a qualification which has helped her to run successfully her own specialized independent internetworking consultancy business.  Rita has been developing and teaching (inter)networking live courses for a worldwide business and technical audience for almost ten years. Recently she has become involved in on-line web education in the networking field and is currently running a TCP/IP course offered via the University of California, Los Angeles. She participates in the IEEE and IETF standardization work in the area of LANs and TCP/IP, and since 1993 has also been active in ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in the French Silicon Valley. In addition, she is also a founding member of the national Telecommunication Users Association supporting users' needs and collaborating worldwide on EU and other transnational telecommunications issues.  Rita has already published several books in the field of communication networks, TCP/IP, routing and switching, ITU-T standardization, and technical terminology (including the Communications Technology Terms and Abbreviations Dictionary). She has also written numerous articles for national and international technical magazines, such as Data Communications, Computer Communications, ComputerWorld, and PCWorld, and has presented papers at international conferences and seminars.  Having studied and worked in several countries, Rita is multilingual. She is also interested in non-technical issues such as creative thinking and holds an Edward de Bono certificate on General Thinking Skills.  Rita can be reached at [e-mail].

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1008 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (December 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201398613
• ISBN-13: 978-0201398618
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.7 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for both beginner and professional, March 15, 2002

By 

Zdenek Roubal (Prague, Czech Republic) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Routing and Switching: time of convergence (Hardcover)

Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence? is "All in One" book covering all aspects of modern networking.

Time of Convergence? is the proper book for people who want to learn what the internetworking is, which devices make internetworking infrastructure, how and why communication protocols exist and other issues of traditional networking. Furthermore progressive technologies and trends are discussed. This book is also well suitable for internetworking experts who would appreciate all important information collected in one place.

Both range and depth of information presented are carefully selected. Details and facts are sufficient to satisfy the internet professionals. On the other hand all elementary principles are adequately described and are clear for understanding.

Chapters are set up in logical and chronological structure reflecting the OSI reference model and the history. Reader is guided through architectures of communication systems, types of networks and technologies. Problems of switched and routed networks are discussed next. The book is not limited only to internet networks based on Internet Protocol (IP) but covers also non-IP networks like AppleTalk, IPX/SPX, DECnet etc. The last third of the text points to progressive topics like increasing of the communication speed, quality of services issues, MPLS and optical switching.

The concept of Snapshots and Hints for summarizing key facts and Quick Tips for underlining not so obvious ideas makes orientation and understanding easier. Standards and RFC Watches are used to summarize standards mentioned in previous paragraphs. The book is not filled up by standards citations but it is simple to reach them in this way.

Useful parts of the book are appendix sections. It contains abbreviations, standardization overview, quick guide to troubleshooting common networking issues, overview of transmission speeds, IP protocol and port numbers, multicast addresses, binary/decimal/hexadecimal number conversion table and links to recommended sources. It is not necessary to search RFCs or other sources. You will save your time simply opening the proper page.

Time of Convergence? is perfect, complex, clearly structured and easy to read internetworking handbook. You can read it word by word as well as only pick up topics you are interested in right now and improve or align your knowledge.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, worth the read, December 1, 2002

By 

A Al-Adhami (Glasgow, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Routing and Switching: time of convergence (Hardcover)

I am a Beng Electronic engineer Final Year student doing my final year project on routing efficiencies, investigating packet arrival times using different routing protocols. I have so far found this book extremely beneficial, which explains a lot of the terminology and techniques in the routing world in great detail. For me its not a book to read from back to back, but one that I found very handy to have near by when working along with my project.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What I wish people prepared with for advanced study, February 18, 2002

By 

Howard C. Berkowitz (Cape Cod, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Routing and Switching: time of convergence (Hardcover)

The author walks a wonderful line between the confusing oversimplifications found in many networking overviews and beginning vendor courses, and books for experienced designers and protocol architects. As an author and consultant in design, someone who read and understood this book would be ready to go into the "next level" of knowledge. Again in walking the fine line, the descriptions of protocols makes sure the reader knows WHY the protocol does what it does, and then introduces HOW to a leven of detail that is appropriate but not overwhelming. There are excellent references conveniently in the body of the text, but the author avoids the trap of filling a book with large chunks of text from standards documents.