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Computer and communication networks (2nd ed.)
Mir N., Prentice Hall Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2014. 912 pp. Type: Book (978-0-133814-74-3)
Date Reviewed: Jul 7 2020

In every technological field characterized by very fast changes, it is necessary to update the related textbooks with the progress of research and practice. Obviously, this statement refers also to networking, where rapid reactions to book contents are also necessary. For sure, the author of this book took these guidelines into account while preparing the second edition, devoted to the presentation of fundamentals on the way data is transmitted in the modern world. This way, following the first edition, it was necessary for the author to intensively refresh the material and modify it after eight years. He does this in a very effective manner; as a result, the book is perfect for first undergraduate courses in networking and related fields.

The book is divided (almost equally, from the viewpoint of its volume) into two parts. The first part, “Fundamental Concepts,” (along with some appendices closing the work) deals with problems that are absolutely basic to understand any idea related to contemporary networking. The second part, “Advanced Concepts,” can be treated as a less or more subjective (yet very useful) selection of topics, which on the one hand stands as an introduction to some more theoretical research issues, and on the other hand presents various specialized problems that can interest readers and encourage them to look for more thorough information or literature.

Part 1 embraces the following problems: basics of packet networks operated with transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) in chapter 1, methods of network transmission and local networks construction (where physical and link layers are related to wired and wireless methods and protocols) in chapters 2 through 4, routing and congestion control in chapter 5, multicasting in chapter 6, wireless wide area networks (WANs) and 4G cellular networks in chapter 7, TCP and the user datagram protocol (UDP) in chapter 8, various network services (including email, the World Wide Web (WWW), remote login, the file transfer protocol (FTP), and peer-to-peer (P2P)) and basics of network management in chapter 9. The last chapter of the first part presents the most important problems of security provisioning (for example, ciphers, authentication, and protocol support for security enforcement).

While the first part of the book generally follows the clear concept of a bottom-up approach to the problems (from the lower to higher layers), the second part of the book, related to advanced topics, is more spread out and leads from more classical to the most innovative and new topics. This way, it starts with a presentation of the basics of queueing theory in chapter 11, and then shows internal construction of Layer 3 and Layer 2 network devices in chapter 12. In the subsequent chapter, the author elaborates on quality provisioning in packet networks, while chapter 14 is devoted to the application of virtual connections (at various levels: tunnels for virtual private network (VPN) provisioning and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) basics). Then, in chapter 15, the author comes back to the physical layer and dives into optical technology for network transmission. The most innovative concepts related to cloud computing, network virtualization, and programmable networks (that is, software-defined networking) are presented in chapters 16 and 17. The three following chapters discuss various problems related to multimedia transmission (signaling for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), compression of multimedia information, and multimedia distribution, elaborated on in the context of content distribution networks and support by cloud technologies). At the end, chapters 21 and 22 deal with wireless networks, that is, mobile ad hoc networks and the ones related to transmission of sensor data.

As I emphasized at the beginning, the author took thorough care to update the book. He has extended his work with more than 300 pages, in comparison to the first edition. Almost all the chapters presented before have been reshaped (also with the internal and relative structure), and the sections have new pieces of information added. A few chapters are totally new in the second part (the ones on clouds and software-defined networking (SDN)).

As before, this edition can be used as a standalone and self-contained textbook for a full course in computer networking. Apart from embracing the most important issues related to contemporary knowledge, it also contains an interesting set of questions to deepen understanding of the contents of each chapter. Additionally, it provides some simulation-related exercises for readers to practice on their own programming of network procedures during project classes.

Except for the strictly modeling-oriented chapter 11, there are parts combining the operational knowledge with mathematical descriptions of the presented concepts. Apparently, the author follows the concept of just-in-time modeling, that is, mathematics is presented without prior introduction of the whole theory, focusing only on the explanation of the presented engineering ideas. This approach is assumed in many books and, privately, I like it. But, taking that into account, a concise appendix introducing the probability modeling given at the end of the work is in place to recall the necessary background knowledge. This way, the book is a perfect introduction to networking problems that provides all the necessary information and insights aimed at students and professionals who start their journey in the networking field.

Reviewer:  Piotr Cholda Review #: CR147010 (2011-0249)
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