This newly revised edition continues to provide an enduring, practical understanding of networks and their building blocks through rich, example-based instruction. The authors' focus is on the why of network design; not just the specifications comprising today's systems, but how key technologies and protocols actually work in the real world to solve specific problems.
The new edition offers a number of unique features that provide you with the best introduction to computer networking. First and most importantly, this book teaches the fundamental principles of networking, rather than just reciting facts and laboring through packet headers. To teach these principles, the book proceeds through a series of problems that a researcher, practitioner or network equipment designer must solve in order to build a fully functional network. This problem-solving focus engages creativity, facilitating learning and innovation throughout a career in networking.
The "Systems Approach” provides another compelling feature. This book encourages you to look at the big picture and think of networks as complex systems with many interacting parts rather than a set of rigidly defined layers. The systems approach and the problem-solving focus of this book naturally lead to a thorough treatment of applications later in the book. This organization ensures that the material is presented as a series of problems to be solved to meet the requirements of networked applications. By learning relevant problem-solving skills, the reader will become better equipped to be a successful builder and designer of complex systems.
Finally, the book has a solidly practical perspective. By using examples drawn from the real world of networking, especially the Internet of today, it focuses most on the new technologies with the greatest importance. For example, Ethernet and wireless technologies receive more in-depth coverage than rings. Sidebars that discuss the success and failure of various protocols in actual deployment have been added in this revision. The reader will gain perspective on how networks operate in the real world while learning the fundamental principles of networking. These insights will equip the reader to deal with the rapid changes in networking that are certain to surface in the future.
Key Features
- Completely updated with new sidebar discussions that cover the deployment status of protocols described in the book
- Addition of sizeable number of new exercises and solutions
- Downloadable OPNET network simulation software and lab experiments manual
- New and revised instructor support material, including PowerPoint slides, EPS version of figures appearing in the text, sample exams, lecture notes, UNIX sockets programming assignments
“I adopted this text because the topics are more contemporary than other textbooks. The discussions relate well to physical layers; rather than just the layers above. I also like the free access to the network simulation experiments manual and OPNET software (student edition).”
—Professor Srinivasan Ramasubramanian, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona
“What do I like about this book? Same as in 3rd edition: mainly bottom-up structure of networking topics which is my preferred way of teaching networking basics as well as good exercises and examples.”
—Professor Christian Poellabauer, Computer Science and Engineering, University of Notre Dame
“The book is very good and provides detailed discussions about computer network topics. It is of great help in my teaching. I have been using this textbook for my courses COSC485 (Data Communications and Networking) and COSC585 (Computer Networks I) at Bowie State University. This is a comprehensive textbook covering the major topics in networking. I have also visited http://textbooks.elsevier.com, and think the instructor support materials are useful.”
—Professor Bo Yang, CS Department, Bowie State University
“Peterson and Davie provide a background for readers to understand networking principles, a framework for network modeling, and insight into the architectural implications of large scale networks. Students who learn the systems approach from this book
will be better equipped to develop and deploy the networks of the future.”
—Susan Scheer Aoki, VP of Engineering, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Larry L. Peterson is professor and chair of computer science at Princeton University. He is director of the Princeton-hosted PlanetLab Consortium and chair of the planning group for NSF's GENI Initiative. His research focuses on the design and implementation of networked systems. Professor Peterson recently served as editor-in-chief of the ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, he has been on the editorial board for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and the IEEE Journal on Select Areas in Communication and he has served as program chair for SOSP, NSDI and HotNets. Peterson is a fellow of the ACM. He received his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University in 1985.
Bruce S. Davie joined Cisco Systems in 1995, where he is a Cisco Fellow. He leads an architecture group developing Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities for IP networks. He has more than 15 years of networking and communications industry experience and has written numerous books, RFCs, journal articles and conference papers on IP networking. He is also an active participant in both the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Research Task Force. Prior to joining Cisco he was director of internetworking research and chief scientist at Bell Communications Research. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Edinburgh University. In 2007 he was a visiting lecturer at MIT. |
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Computer Networks:
A Systems Approach,
4th Edition
848 pages
Trim size 7 1/2 X 9 1/4 in
Copyright 2007
USD 102.95
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-12-370548-8
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