Preface

Origin

The origin of this book lies in the first edition of the book ATM Networks: Concepts and Protocols by Sumit Kasera. ATM Networks comprises both the basic concepts of networking as well as the details of ATM networks. The organization of the book made many reviewers opine that the target audience was unclear, largely because it incorporated, in one book, material that was too technical for beginners and material that was too basic for experts. It was clear therefore, that the basic concepts of networking demanded another form.

The options were not many. They could be deleted from the book, and hence, be lost forever. Alternatively, they could be posted on the Internet, in what would inevitably be a rather raw form. The third choice was to put in some effort on the contents, to give it a meaningful shape, in the form of a book. To decide, a quick survey was conducted among the readers of the book: Gurpreet Singh, Yogesh Garg, Paras Shah and L. Sreenivasan were those who provided valuable comments. They were unanimous that the basic concepts should not be lost and that breaking the book into two separate books was a better idea by far. This verdict led to the birth of the second edition of ATM networks focusing only on ATM technology; and a second book— a new book— on Communication Networks: Principles and Practice.

To fulfill the latter objective, the three of us came together, to co-author this project. Our task was made easier because we are colleagues at that great organization, Flextronics Software Systems, which has a vast knowledge base in the field of networking and communication.


Scope

Without any doubt there are plethora of books in the field of data communications, networking, and computer networks. And without any doubt, many of them are written by great academicians and are extremely good books. We have had the opportunities to read and learn from these books. Given this, it was important for us to ask ourselves whether there was a genuine need for another book? If yes, what purpose would this book fulfill?

One clear need (or demand) for most readers is to have a book that is simple and fairly easy to read. However, as with the first edition of ATM Networks, most good books are comprehensive and cover many topics that people might not like to read. This is especially true for first time readers. Thus, a clear need emerges for a book that is easy to read, simple to understand, which does not use lot of jargons, and which covers most of the important topics of communication networks (if not all). It is this need that our new book tries to fulfill. This book has a fairly simple language, covers only key concepts, does not attempt to cover networking protocols in any detail (except as examples to illustrate a point) and is not very thick. We hope therefore, that reading the book from cover to cover will not task our readers for time.

To this end, the authors have adopted many novel techniques. First of all, the focus is on concepts, not on technologies. Further, the chapters are not based on the OSI reference model, thus providing a greater flexibility to the organization of the contents. The book is planned such that each chapter first provides details of a particular aspect of networking (e.g. Routing) and then explains it further by using examples of a contemporary technology (in this case, TCP/IP, ATM or even 3G Network). This approach allows the reader to learn the concepts and further helps him with actual realization in a popular technology. For more details, there are several good books on each individual technology that are mentioned in the Further Reading section. To summarize, this book tries to build a base for understanding the basic concepts of communication networks.

Many categories of people would find this book useful. These include students of basic courses on computer networks or data communications. Students taking advance courses will find this book handy for revising basic concepts of networking. This book will also be of value to fresh telecom professionals coming from non computer-science background and lacking relevant experience.

Here, without any iota of doubt, it may be said that this new book does not diminish the utility of the existing good books. It only makes reading of other books easier. It does not aspire to replace these books.

 

About the book

Most books on computer networks are typically based on the OSI reference model. Thus, they cover the seven layers or building blocks of communication networks. This OSI model is a fairly old concept and most of its principles have undergone modifications. Moving away from the OSI model, this book looks at several key concepts of networking and explains them with relevant examples. The concepts are divided in three Parts (see Fig. P.1).

Part 1 provides an introduction to the building blocks of communication networks. In this part, Chapter 1 provides an overview of connection-oriented and connectionless services and explains why these concepts are important. Chapter 2 provides an overview of protocol layering principles including the OSI reference model. Chapter 3 then elaborates on the concept of transfer modes (including circuit switching and packet switching). This concept is tightly linked to the nature of network services (i.e. connection-oriented and connectionless services). Chapter 4 discusses some of the aspects related to network topology and extent.

 

Figure P.1: Organization of this book

Part 2 uses the building blocks of networks as discussed in Part 1 to elaborate upon seven core concepts of networking. Chapter 5 discusses physical layer aspects like transmission and multiple access. Chapter 6 looks at data link layer functionality and discusses issues like access resolution, sliding window protocol, flow control and error control. Chapter 7 looks at the means for connecting different networks together, a process referred to as bridging. Chapter 8 looks at switching issues and switch architectures. Chapter 9 elaborates upon the types of addressing and the relevance of addressing. Chapter 10 and 11 talk about signalling and routing. Typically, addressing, signalling, and routing go together (and are typically applicable at the network layer). 

Part 3 takes the discussion forward and touches upon three more concepts. The concept of traffic and traffic management is discussed in Chapter 12. The network management aspects are covered in Chapter 13 and security related issues and solutions are discussed in Chapter 14.

 

Web Site

To better interact with readers after the publication of this book, the authors have created a web site http://nwbook.tripod.com and a mirror web site managed by the publisher http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/digital_solutions/sumitnishit. These web sites offers the following:

·        Feedback and Review Comments

Readers are encouraged to visit the web site and use the available material.

 

Suggestions

Your comments, feedback, and constructive criticism are valuable to us; so, please feel free to drop an email at nwbook@lycos.com. We would be glad to incorporate your comments in the subsequent editions of the book.

Sumit Kasera

Nishit Narang

Sumita Narang

 


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