New Book Review: "Architecture of Network Systems"

New book review for Architecture of Network Systems, by Dimitrios Serpanos and Tilman Wolf, Morgan Kaufmann, 2011, reposted here:

As the authors explain in the preface, this book was developed for use in university courses at the upper undergraduate and graduate level, using material previously presented by the authors at both the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The authors view this text as the first systematic effort to present the architecture of the complete range of network systems as a whole, comprising an overview of network systems architecture, along with discussions on network protocols and network systems requirements, interconnects and switching fabrics, network adapters, bridges and layer 2 switches, routers, transport layer and application layer systems, Quality of Service (QoS), security, specialized hardware components, power issues, networks on chips, run-time support systems, and next-generation internet architecture, as well as an appendix on the layered internet architecture and network protocols.

Having recently managed several virtualization projects for a client, as a consultant I especially appreciated the vendor neutrality, and concise yet comprehensive nature of this text, although the relatively short 300-page length can be a bit deceptive to potential readers not acquainted with academic books in the technology space. In addition, I also appreciated the careful treatment of the authors in their wording, especially that targeted toward unknown audiences. For example, in their discussion of virtualized networks within the chapter on next-generation internet architecture, the authors appropriately state that "this type of virtualization should not be confused with virtualization technology used in local area networks (LANs). Virtual LANs (VLANs) are used to configure logical subnets within a single physical local area network. In such VLANs, the protocol stack is typically the same for all virtual networks. Thus, VLAN technology does not provide as comprehensive a virtualization solution as is necessary for next-generation networks." The multitude of line diagrams provided throughout are always appropriate, and even the appendix has substance. Well recommended.