Top-Down Network Design (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]

Priscilla Oppenheimer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1587051524 | ISBN-13: 978-1587051524 | Publication Date: June 6, 2004 | Edition: 2

A systems analysis approach to enterprise network design

• Master techniques for checking the health of an existing network to develop a baseline for measuring performance of a new network design
• Explore solutions for meeting QoS requirements, including ATM traffic management, IETF controlled-load and guaranteed services, IP multicast, and advanced switching, queuing, and routing algorithms
• Develop network designs that provide the high bandwidth and low delay required for real-time applications such as multimedia, distance learning, and videoconferencing
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of various switching and routing protocols, including transparent bridging, Inter-Switch Link (ISL), IEEE 802.1Q, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and BGP4
• Effectively incorporate new technologies into enterprise network designs, including VPNs, wireless networking, and IP Telephony

Top-Down Network Design, Second Edition, is a practical and comprehensive guide to designing enterprise networks that are reliable, secure, and manageable. Using illustrations and real-world examples, it teaches a systematic method for network design that can be applied to campus LANs, remote-access networks, WAN links, and large-scale internetworks.

You will learn to analyze business and technical requirements, examine traffic flow and QoS requirements, and select protocols and technologies based on performance goals. You will also develop an understanding of network performance factors such as network utilization, throughput, accuracy, efficiency, delay, and jitter. Several charts and job aids will help you apply a top-down approach to network design.

This Second Edition has been revised to include new and updated material on wireless networks, virtual private networks (VPNs), network security, network redundancy, modularity in network designs, dynamic addressing for IPv4 and IPv6, new network design and management tools, Ethernet scalability options (including 10-Gbps Ethernet, Metro Ethernet, and Long-Reach Ethernet), and networks that carry voice and data traffic.

Top-Down Network Design, Second Edition, has a companion website at http://www.topdownbook.com, which includes updates to the book, links to white papers, and supplemental information about design resources.

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press¿ which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A systems analysis approach to enterprise network design

• Master techniques for checking the health of an existing network to develop a baseline for measuring performance of a new network design
• Explore solutions for meeting QoS requirements, including ATM traffic management, IETF controlled-load and guaranteed services, IP multicast, and advanced switching, queuing, and routing algorithms
• Develop network designs that provide the high bandwidth and low delay required for real-time applications such as multimedia, distance learning, and videoconferencing
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of various switching and routing protocols, including transparent bridging, Inter-Switch Link (ISL), IEEE 802.1Q, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and BGP4
• Effectively incorporate new technologies into enterprise network designs, including VPNs, wireless networking, and IP Telephony

Top-Down Network Design, Second Edition, is a practical and comprehensive guide to designing enterprise networks that are reliable, secure, and manageable. Using illustrations and real-world examples, it teaches a systematic method for network design that can be applied to campus LANs, remote-access networks, WAN links, and large-scale internetworks.

You will learn to analyze business and technical requirements, examine traffic flow and QoS requirements, and select protocols and technologies based on performance goals. You will also develop an understanding of network performance factors such as network utilization, throughput, accuracy, efficiency, delay, and jitter. Several charts and job aids will help you apply a top-down approach to network design.

This Second Edition has been revised to include new and updated material on wireless networks, virtual private networks (VPNs), network security, network redundancy, modularity in network designs, dynamic addressing for IPv4 and IPv6, new network design and management tools, Ethernet scalability options (including 10-Gbps Ethernet, Metro Ethernet, and Long-Reach Ethernet), and networks that carry voice and data traffic.

Top-Down Network Design, Second Edition, has a companion website at http://www.topdownbook.com, which includes updates to the book, links to white papers, and supplemental information about design resources.

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press¿ which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

About the Author

Priscilla Oppenheimer has been developing data communications and networking systems since 1980 when she earned her master's degree in information science from the University of Michigan. After many years as a software developer, she became a technical instructor and training developer and taught more than 2000 network engineers from most of the Fortune 500 companies. Her employment at such companies as Apple Computer, Network General, and Cisco Systems gave her opportunities to troubleshoot real-world network design problems and to develop a practical methodology for enterprise network design. Priscilla was one of the developers of the Cisco Internetwork Design course and the creator of the Designing Cisco Networks course and is a CCNP and CCDP. Priscilla currently teaches computer networking at Southern Oregon University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 600 pages
• Publisher: Cisco Press; 2 edition (June 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587051524
• ISBN-13: 978-1587051524
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #885,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Measure Twice, Cut Once, August 30, 2004

By 

John Gordon Ainsworth (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top-Down Network Design (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

Like the carpenter, the network designer does well to develop a plan before purchase. The title, Top-Down Network Design, is accurate because the author's key approach throughout the book is to consider what works best for the end user and meet the goals of a Request for Proposal. Priscilla Oppenheimer has presented a well structured textbook that covers every facet of networking in general with the intent of training the reader in the best practices of network design. The point of this book is to discourage going straight to product catalogs and picking out hardware when assigned a network project. Even if the customer is not given an RFP, the designer should present an overview of the project that includes the goals and how those goals will be measured.

The reader should have some basic knowledge of networking. However, this would make an excellent text book at a university or trade school since Oppenheimer covers all of the logical concepts and physical aspects of modern networking. The well read and experienced network engineer will find it a good review with a unique insight or tip sprinkled just often enough to make it worth the read. Except for the CCDP exam, the book is primarily a supplement to the student, but a must have reference for the consulting and design professional.

Oppenheimer gives well thought through, easy to read descriptions of technologies. For example, page 208 gives the most succinct explanation of how IPv6 works I have ever read. Another practical lesson is her definition of the "Heisenberg uncertainty principle" as "the act of observing something can alter what is observed." Consultants should be careful that their analysis doesn't become a problem in itself. Top-Down Network Design is a reference you will want to check yourself and those you hire.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greenfield or Retrofit -- read this before you design, August 15, 2004

By 

A. A. Hines "senior network engineer" (Plano, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top-Down Network Design (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

Top-Down Network Design, Second Edition is both a new terrific book and still a terrific book. The original took a systems approach to designing a network which could provide the service the people paying for it expected, partly by getting them to clarify their expectations and needs. The new Second Edition does this, too, but it includes material relevant to the networks being implemented today, and they are very different networks than we saw even three or four years ago.

New technologies, such as VPNs, VoIP, IPv6 as well as v4, Gigabit Ethernet and 10GigE, etc. are covered as part of a networking solution, not just as cool and sexy technologies to be rolled out for that reason. Likewise, new business emphases like reliability, redundancy, resiliency (which are not the same thing), security, and even survivability are addressed. Not all new technologies will help solve these problems, and, more often than not, they aren't even necessary. Thoughtful planning is far more important, and working with the network as it is now, toward what it is desired to become, is how you can really solve these problems.

I think one of the greatest techniques you can learn from TDND, 2e is to characterize the flows of traffic on the network. Priscilla Oppenheimer gives several examples of developing such analyses in a variety of situations - campus networks, WANs, a design testing scenario, and so forth. The Appendix with workstation bootup traffic information is especially helpful - the only thing I would have liked to see that I didn't was a little more detail on the contents of the various packets involved, but it is an Appendix, and using a sniffer will let you see them for yourself.

I have both the original and the new Second Edition - and getting the new one is definitely worth it. Networking has changed, and this book will help you handle the new material.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive as both a reference and working guide, July 2, 2006

By 

Leonard Elfenbein (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top-Down Network Design (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This book is a very comprehensive reference source and working guide for 3G mobile networks. If you're only going to buy one book on the subject, this is it.