Customer Reviews

Voice over IP Fundamentals

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've had the Davidson book on the shelf for about a year and finally picked it up for a careful read to help me prepare of Cisco's CVOICE exam. While the book is useful toward that end, I recommend it only cautiously.

No doubt part of the problem is mine; by background includes extensive data but very little voice experience. I found the topic Signaling System 7 and similar topics to be slow reading, and I questioned the value of the IP tutorial. A reader with the inverse of my background may have exactly the opposite experience.

This book is unusually dense with acronyms, even for a technical book. The nature of the topic makes acronyms unavoidable, but I felt the lack of a glossary was a serious deficiency. I frequently found myself flipping back and forth through the book to decode an acronym to no avail. Thorough readers might want to construct their own glossary with index cards.

I also had the sense, especially toward the end of the book, that I was getting less of an explanation of the technology than a simple compendium of features. This was especially evident in those thin sections on the Session Initiation Protocol, the Simple Gateway Control Protocol, the Media Gateway Control Protocol, and the Virtual Switch Controller. I found the sections on the H.323 Protocols and Quality of Service more useful and complete.

Given the ambitious scope of the book, I believe the author could have provided a more readable and understandable treatment with six or seven hundred pages rather than the three hundred plus provided. Still, I find my understanding of the subject to have increased substantially. It is a fact that there are few alternatives. I give the book a qualified recommendation. Read it slowly and carefully, mastering acronyms as you go, to maximize its value.

Jon and James have a conversational writing style that was easy to follow for me. They have included a lot of historical information that should help the reader understand the momentum behind the transition that is taking place today, creating a "new-world" model of internetworking that has its own rules.

As previously mentioned, this is not a design and implementation guide - the forthcoming Cisco Press title "Cisco Voice Integration" will be when it is released. This book does, however, give the reader a very detailed introduction to the underlying technologies that make Voice over IP, Voice over Frame Relay, and Voice over ATM work.

The book was a good read even for someone like myself with over 12 years in telephony and networking. Jon and James have done a good job of collecting and communicating relevant information about each of the VoIP building blocks.

Strong Points: -The people who wrote it are definitely knowledgeable: They have loads of information about almost every topic they discuss -Chapter organization: the chapters are well organized as far as the order in which to expose a reader to the topics, building up to the next. Weak Points: -In almost every chapter, the author(s) frequently mention or compare the topic being discussed with an actual Cisco product. While many people agree they make good products, including myself, this book should be about the VoIP as a standard (as the title implies), not Cisco's products. -The author(s) explain most topics by throwing tons of (or too much) information at the reader, including exceptions to the rule - all in the same sentence. Some of the key points are not even mentioned or elaborated on, while the author goes to point out small or insignificant details. -While discussing the history of Telephony and VoIP technology, the use of acronyms is unavoidable, but the author(s) overuses them to the extreme. At times, there are synonym acronyms that the author(s) will use randomly and interchangeably in the same chart, diagram or sentence; this is highly confusing. Also, there is no glossary, so you have to waste time flipping back through the pages to look up acronyms they spelled out once. Many acronyms are not even defined - they are just mentioned as casual talk to define other acronyms (so have your internet browser ready). -The author(s) frequently define topics and acronyms sections or chapters after they are first mentioned. This is also very confusing and frustrating. -The book is filled with charts and graphs. Most of them you really have to study to understand because they use many little pictures for which there is no legend, and some you flat our need an electrical engineering degree to understand.

This book is the one to read if you want to know something about the basics of Voice Over IP and the protocols which are involved like H.323. It also gives you an introduction to the POTS ( plain old telephony service ) standards. So, if you are new to VoIP and want to read about it from the ground, buy this.

But it is not the right choice if you are searching for preparation material for the cisco #640-647 cvoice exam. For that exam you also have to know something about VoFR and VoATM, which is not covered deeply enough here.

Although this book is but 15 chapters and 336 pages long it took me an incredible amount of time to read through it due to the complexity with which it was written. I've read several Cisco Press books in the same time it took to read this one! Further, I found myself asking the question over and over again, "If this book is about the fundamentals of Voice over IP and is 'A Systematic Approach to Understanding the Basics of Voice over IP', why is it difficult to grasp even the 'basics' as presented by the authors?" As stated in a previous review, the authors have a great understanding of the topics, however, like my Theory of Operating Systems instructor, they do not do well in 'dumbing' down that information to me, a layperson in this field. This book was definitely written by VoIP engineers for VoIP engineers, not for beginners like myself.

Jim, Jon, and Brian have written a good informational book about the basics of voip technology. It is interesting to see where voice started and provide a clear path for where it is going. I found the configurations in the back very useful.

As a note to the previous reviewer: Page 168 states that "serialization delay is not covered IN-DEPTH". If the previous reviewer continued to read the book they would have noted on page 213 and 214 a discussion on propagation delay and the need for fragmentation. Overall I found the book useful, however I would have liked more configurations.

This book is a must for engineers in VoIP field, though it lacks in-depth configuration guides like the CCNA & CCNP study guides do. Also it lacks recent developements on VoDSL and VoIP in HFC area. The seventh chapter on IP overview is not required as the readers are assumed to be fluent with the OSI seven layers ! Rather, I would like to see an in-depth descrption (with diagrams of course !) of the RTP protocol. Besides, the book lacks the description on the VoIP hardware equipment, like Cisco 2600, 3800, AS5300. On the whole I find this book useful but you must supplement your reading with the Cisco configuration guides found in CCO.

I was looking for a book on the fundamentals of VoIP. I had high expectations for this book because I am a big fan of Cisco Press. I felt after reading this book that it was full of GREAT content but fell short of delivering it in a decipherable manner. It was loaded with information, too much information and seemed to be stuck in a transition phase of VoIP. I went ahead and wrote Cisco Press about my displeasure. They recommended I check out Voice over IP First-Step (Paperback) http://www.amazon.com/Voice-over-First-Step-Kevin-Wallace/dp/1587201569/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269372437&sr=8-3 and sent me a copy to review for free. Based of the reviews on Amazon I am looking forward to cracking this bad boy open.

This book is properly titled: It only covers Fundamentals. It is obviously not written by polished writers, and I cringed when the word "it's" was misused in the first paragraph. But, unless you want detailed, well-written technical documentation, the book might be OK for you.

The book was really in a good situation. There are sime highlighted lines and pages, but in general it is very clean.

The book store was also very responsive to my emails.