An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking

By Srinivasan Keshav

Book Overview

Suitable for students, working network engineers, and (to some degree) salespeople responsible for promoting network services, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking: ATM Networks, the Internet, and the Telephone Network explains how voice and data networks operate. Author Srinivsan Keshav does a great job of explaining how various systems--especially Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, Internet Protocol (IP) networks, and switched voice networks--communicate signals from one point to another. He notes similarities and differences among the systems' approaches to the problem of telecommunications and highlights the challenges inherent in integrating them. If you're involved in building a large network, particularly if you'll be laying your own cable over long distances--you'll appreciate the design advice this book provides. An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking takes an academic approach to its topic--the author based this book on lectures he gave at several universities, after all. You can fault his writing style for its dryness, but not for lack of detail or breadth of coverage. He deserves particular praise for his explanation of the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, complete with an intelligent analogy between a letter delivered by a postal service and a packet traveling over a network. --David Wall Topics covered: Fundamentals of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6), and telephone networks. Multiplexing, collision management, queuing, switching and routing under ATM, IP, and switched voice. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201634422
• ISBN13: 9780201634426
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 660 Pages
• Weight: 2.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 7.4" x 1.5"

Customer Reviews

excellent reference for researchers & developers alike

I don't have anything other than superlatives for this book. I would probably compare this with, say, "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan & Ritchie, which is an accepted C programming bible. The book is NOT painfully huge yet it makes the reader get the right intuition very easily on almost every topic in networking.Every concept either has either a) rigourous analysis b) references to where rigourous analysis could...

Great. This one has the meat. My favorite.

This is one of the few books that starts with atoms and goes right upto traffic characterizations. Beginners can also benefit a lot from this book, though they might sometimes have to refer to other more basic books. The approach is fantastic and the explanations are great. He uses examples which clarify your concepts and make you think. There is an entire chapter on design issues. That one is a winner. There is also a...

Great Reference Book

While quite usefull as a general text in networking, I find this book to be one of my best resources as a general reference book for networks. Very lucid, well explained sections on complex topics (scheduling, routing, for ex)are often superior to other books dedicated exclusively to such topics. I especially like the exhaustive chapter-by-chapter references given which enable me to pull additional detailed info from...

I wish I had written this book. This is a must have.

Dr. Keshav has a real winner here. For each of the past 3 groups that I have been bringing up to speed in the communications area, I have bought a case lot of this book. I pass them out and suggest people read the first 3 chapters and scan the rest. They did and they did much better work. Many come back and say that they have enjoyed the latter chapters as much as the clear introductory ones. I left my last copy with a...

Exceptionally clear and well written.

This is one of those rare books that had me smiling from so many "aha!" flashes of understanding... Dr. Kesav's prose is lucid and simple, without being simplistic. Numerous and well chosen examples are well integrated in the text. What's exceptional about this book is how well one can intuitively understand most of it at first read. If you really, really want to _understand_ the principles behind computer networking, read...