Fred Halsall
COMPUTER NETWORKING AND THE INTERNET
Hardcover pp. 803, plus XXV
Addison Wesley, an imprint of Pearson Education, Harlow, England, 2005
ISBN 0-321-26358-8

In general about the book

During the last 40 years technological advances around the world have occurred at the phenomenal rate, transforming the telecommunications industry into a highly sophisticated and extremely dynamic field. Communication between people and devices becomes critical to the success of many today's business activities. To facilitate communication, we deploy network. When we combine several networks, we call it internetwork. An example for this network of networks is the Internet. As a public data communications network used by millions of people all over the world the Internet has revolutionized many aspects of our daily lives. It has affected not only the way we do business and exchange personal information, but also the way we spend our leisure time. This text provides a comprehensive coverage of recent development in data communications networking, such as

Chapter content

The book is divided into ten chapters, five appendices, a Bibliography and further reading, and an Index. The book covers the following subjects:

Chapter 1 (Data Communications and Networking Basics, pp. 1-90) introduces the fundamental concepts of data communications and networking. Topics covered include definitions of networking terminology, digital communications basics, protocol basics, and protocol stack.

Chapter 2 (Telephone Networks and Modems, pp. 91-161) presents the basic principles of operation of telephone networks including characteristics of transmission systems, different approaches in access network- and trunk network-signaling, specifics of broadband modems, and access to the Internet through Internet service providers (ISPs).

Chapter 3 (Local Area Networks and Intranets, pp. 162-221) gives a detailed description of LAN technologies and topologies. It describes Ethernet/IEEE 802.2 networks, introduces data communications hardware components (hubs, bridges and switches), discusses three variations of the basic Ethernet LAN (Fast-, Switched Fast- and Gigabit-Ethernet), involves virtual LAN (IEEE 802.1Q), explains principles of operation of LAN protocols, and describes concepts of multisite LAN interconnection technologies.

Chapter 4 (Wireless Networks, pp. 222-268) covers the fundamental concepts of wireless networks. Detailed descriptions for Bluetooth, wireless LANs, and cellular radio networks are given.

Chapter 5 (Entertainment Networks, pp. 269-317) deals with standard entertainment applications that include movie/video-on-demand, broadcast television, and interactive television. Principles of cable and satellite television networks are presented.

Chapter 6 (The Internet Protocol, pp. 318-437) gives a detailed description of the Internet protocol. The main themes discussed here are with IP datagrams, IP addressing, routing in the Internet, QoS support, IPv6, and IPv6/IPv4 interoperability.

Chapter 7 (Transport Protocols, pp. 438-502) introduces ports numbers, sockets addresses, and transport-layer protocol. Detailed descriptions of TCP, UDP, RTP and RTCP, and wireless TCP are given.

Chapter 8 (Internet Applications, pp. 503-567) introduces several application-layer protocols and the processes they perform. First, the concept of the domain name system (DNS) is explained. In the rest of the text more details concerning file transfer protocol, electronic mail, Internet telephony, and simple network management protocol are given.

Chapter 9 (The World Wide Web, pp. 568-632) is devoted to Web as one of the many services available on the Internet and on private networks. Topics covered include URLs and HTTP, HTML, Java and JavaScript, Internet audio/video, wireless Web, and Web operation.

Chapter 10 (Security, pp. 633-676) discusses network security related to the Internet. Basic principles of data encryption, authentication, public key certification authorities, E-mail privacy, network security, and Web security are presented.

At the end of the main text five appendices are included in order to provide additional materials needed to understand the concepts discussed in the book. Appendix A deals with Multimedia data representation and compression algorithms. Appendix B concentrates on error detection methods such as parity, block sum check, and cyclic redundancy check. Appendix C covers techniques for forward error control such as block codes and convolution codes. Appendix D presents basics of radio propagation and transmission. Appendix E presents focuses on ATM networks in the Internet backbone.

Useful for students, engineers, and researchers

The objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive reference for a solid understanding of the operation and organization of computer networking and the Internet. It provides a good theoretical and practical treatment of the computer networks and represents an authoritative treatment of the fundamentals of the TCP/IP protocol suite, Internet and Web applications.

The book is well organized, the explanations are clear, and the depth of each subject covered is adequate. Each chapter of the book is organized in a scholarly way, containing a brief introduction, analysis of the main theme, summary, and a set of exercises that emphasizes the most important concepts presented.

The book can be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering. Also it can be very useful and valuable reference for practicing engineers, system engineers, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about computer networking and Internet. Many libraries will be interested in adding this book to their collection.

Taking all thinks together, it is an excellent text and should be read by many of us. I highly recommend this book.