Computer Networks: A Systems Approach

by Larry L. Peterson

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, designed for an advanced college-level course in network design and operation, provides the network applications programmer with detailed information about how networks do their thing. While Computer Networks is neither a user manual nor a technical reference, it provides an in-depth background on how network architectures and protocols work.

In the beginning, Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie discuss why networks are important and talk about where networks may go in the long term. The authors then move right into a discussion of protocols. There's a fascinating section--complete with plenty of C code--in which the authors actually develop a network protocol called A Simple Protocol (ASP). They compare switching and packet networks and emphasize tunneling protocols. In the internetworking chapter, you'll learn practically all there is to know about Internet Protocol (IP). The concluding chapters talk about traffic management, congestion reduction, and high-speed networking technologies.

Computer Networks reveals the guts of what's going on with computers that share data. Though way out of the league of most computer users, true geeks with an interest in networking will find what they need here.

Genres: Computer Science, Reference, Textbooks, Technology, Technical, Computers, Nonfiction

748 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Dan Drake]

Note that this book can be legally and freely downloaded from https://www.academia.edu/32415264/_Larry_L._Peterson_Bruce_S._Davie_Computer_Netwo_BookFi_.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and should be seriously considered as a classroom textbook or reference book for one or two introductory courses on computer networks for computer scientists, computer engineering or telecommunication engineers at an upper-division undergraduate or first year graduate level.

I taught a course on distributed systems back in the late 1980s and used Tanenbaum’s book on networks as one of the key references to provide an introduction to the seven layers of the ISO/OSI network model. In the 1990s I put the field aside and devoted myself to parallel computation. While I remained vaguely aware of advances in computer networks, I recently wanted to find a book that would allow me to develop a better feeling for the field in the 2010s. This book, published in 2012 fitted the bill perfectly. It is very readable and its separation of some material into introductory and advanced levels is very sensible, for example for switching, routing, and internetworking (chapter three contains the introductory material and chapter contains more advanced material such as BGP, IP version 6 and multicasting) and transport protocols which are covered in chapters 5 and 6 in a similar way, leaving the fascinating but more advanced topic of TCP congestion control algorithms to chapter 6.

I particularly enjoyed the “where are they now?” sidebars which focus on the success and failure of specific protocols in the real world.

There is some unevenness in the depth of coverage of different chapters, but I think this is to be expected in such a rich field -for example, I got the impression that there is more algorithmic detail in the first chapters (say up to chapter five). I also liked the attention given to wireless networks and the all too brief section on routing for mobile devices.

Each reader will probably enjoy some chapter more than others, according to his tastes, background and interests. In my case I very much enjoyed chapter 3 (Internetworking), 6 (congestion control though I found the more advanced sections quite an effort), 7 (end-to-end data, that is presentation level protocols), and particularly 9 (applications, which covers protocols for electronic mail, multimedia applications, name service, network management, and overlay networks) -perhaps it is not coincidental that these are the chapters that the authors state contain major new or substantially updated topics in the fifth edition:

- Updated material on wireless technology, particularly the various flavors of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) as well as cellular wireless technologies including the third generation (3G) and emerging 4G standards.
- Updated coverage of congestion control mechanisms, particularly for high bandwidth-delay product networks and wireless networks.
- Updated material on Web Services, including the SOAP and REST (Representational State Trnsfer) architectures.
- Expanded and updated coverage of interdomain routing and the border gateway protocol (BGP).
- Expanded coverage on protocols for multimedia applications such as voice over IP (VOIP) and video streaming.

I felt chapter 8 (Network security) was one of the least successful, and did not quite hit the sweet spot between excessive detail and sweeping vagueness. I do not consider the section on firewalls sufficiently complete and the example systems were, in my opinion, dealt with far too briefly. In my copy of the fifth edition, the equations in chapter 2 are missing operators (multiplication, division, subtraction and addition signs) which is really annoying. Why this should happen in a fifth edition is beyond me (this is not new material!) and whether all fifth editions have the same problem or whether this happens only for copies typeset by diacriTech, India is beyond me.

Since I merely glanced at the exercises I will not venture an opinion on them, except to mention that the starred exercises certainly seem to be more for graduate than undergraduate students. I did not make use of the free downloadable network simulation software available for the book, although I confess I am still sorely tempted to try it out sometime in the future. The book includes loads of recommended further readings -the sheer amount will probably look excessively daunting for undergraduates and, at first glance -and I may well be mistaken here-, appear to favor key historical papers rather than more recent surveys of research work.

[Nivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook for computer networks course

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book roughly follows a bottom-up structure similar to Computer Networks. But instead of strictly traversing the OSI-TCP/IP network stack, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach is written from the perspective of systems, their components, and their requirements. This makes it easier to understand how they interact, and how that affects today's network(ed) applications. A downside of this approach is that the reader needs to put in more effort to create a mental model in which to place all this knowledge.

I like the book. I think it would work well for a bachelor-level Computer Networks course. To improve further, I think the book could benefit from a larger focus on applications. Using one or multiple running examples throughout the book could make it easier to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different components and designs.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be an extremely helpful overview of the topic as a reader with a reasonable background in general computing but very little background in networking specifically. While a few years old at this point, the edition does not feel particularly dated, and most of the core protocols described are still in use (or even more relevant than when the book was published, in some cases). Provides plenty of good references to more specific technical topics in each chapter to pick and choose from.

[Tine · Rating 4 out of 5]

🙏

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't really fault this book. Very informative and well explained. This edition is 20 years old but given the technology being discussed is still in use today it's still very relevant.

[Hi2syed]

This is one of the best book while u are trying to make some understanding of computer network

[Scott]

More fun computer stuff..

[Joe Martin]

"Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 3rd Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking) by Larry L. Peterson (2003)"

[Vijikesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice

[Henning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly amazing book that explains most little details about how the network protocols really works. If you want to understand networking, this is the book.

[Sunil Ratnakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though not abysmal but provides a strong training for the deep dive. A must read book for computer networks enthusiast.

[Jagan]

superb