Tóm tắt

There are many ways to approach teaching (or understanding) the fundamentals of computer network operation. For instance, one rather traditional way is to begin by examining the operation of a control plane in total, from building neighbor adjacencies to carrying information to building routes. Another common method is to start with a model, such as the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model, and describe the operation of the protocols from within the model. These methods have obviously been useful in teaching engineers and engineering students about how computer networks work, as they have been used to teach thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of network engineers over the last 30 years. But—in the view of the authors writing here—they have not been as effective as they could be. There are still many engineers who do not understand the basics of how a computer network actually works, in spite of many hours spent in labs, reading technical material, and even configuring and deploying network equipment. There is still a large gap in the fundamental mental skills of a large number of network engineers and engineering students that needs to be filled. This book aims to fill that gap—not only for existing engineers, but also for all students who are trying to learn how computer networks work, even if network engineering is not their ultimate career goal. If you are a computer science student, a network engineer with 20 years of experience, someone just trying to learn network engineering, or even a business manager in charge of “the network,” this book has something to offer you…