Designing Large Scale LANs: Help for Network Designers

By Kevin Dooley

Book Overview

This unique book offers a vendor-neutral approach for designing large local area networks according to business or organizational needs, rather than from a product perspective. Author and independent network design consultant Kevin Dooley outlines "top-down network design" for building a technological infrastructure to fit your organization's requirements, a process far more effective and cost-efficient than fitting the organization to the parameters of a shrink-wrapped proprietary solution. Dooley argues that the design of a network is largely independent of the products used. Whether you use a Cisco or Juniper router, the same security issues and protocols apply. The questions he addresses in this book are need-specific: Do I use a router or a switch? Should I route between switched areas or switch between routed areas? Designing Large-Scale LANs covers everything from security, bandwidth and scalability to network reliability, which includes backup, redundancy, and points of failure. Specific technologies are analyzed in detail: network topologies, routing and switching strategies, wireless, virtual LANs, firewalls and gateways, security, Internet protocols, bandwidth, and multicast services. The book also discusses proprietary technologies that are ubiquitous, such as Cisco's IOS and Novell's IPX. This complete guide to top-down network design will help you choose the right network solutions. If you're designing large scale networks and need expert advice and guidance, look no further than Designing Large-Scale LANs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596001509
• ISBN13: 9780596001506
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

BLUEPRINT FOR LARGE-SCALE LANs

The simple but explicit way in which this book went about its chores is exemplary. This book kept its promise of maintaining vendor-neutrality as it unveils the guiding principles necessary for structuring-out a Large-scale LAN. Its design focus centered on stability, reliability, and manageability of Local Area Networks. It also, explained the importance of complementary hardware and software selection in order to optimize both the system's integration and performance. This book discussed issues pertaining to how to run and maintain robust infrastructures, including the identification of single points of failure through statistical analyses. Detailed elaboration and analyses of the pros and cons of network topologies are part of its strength. It also provided detailed information on how to implement standard network protocols like IP and IPX; as well as their dynamic routing protocols such as EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, and NLSP. Similarly, informations on DNS, DHCP, NAT, and VLAN implementations were generously supplied. I was particularly impressed with the detailed analyses of both IP Multicast and IPv6. The same goes for the numerous design options, decisions, and manageability. This is truly a hands-on guide for all those responsible for building and/or maintaining reliable and efficient networks.

great overview

After studying networking for a couple of years, i've now found this book, and it brings everything together brilliantly. It has given me a clear view of the big picture and how the elements that i've studied all work together. I wish this had been my text book while i was studying.