Rita Pułzmanovį, PhD, MBA, is an independent internetworking expert, course developer and trainer. She holds an MSc in systems engineering while her PhD is in telecommunications. As a Cisco Systems?? affiliated consultant and instructor, she keeps abreast of the developments in networking technologies. She completed her MBA with the University of Calgary, a qualification which has helped her to run successfully her own specialized independent internetworking consultancy business. Rita has been developing and teaching (inter)networking live courses for a worldwide business and technical audience for almost ten years. Recently she has become involved in on-line web education in the networking field and is currently running a TCP/IP course offered via the University of California, Los Angeles. She participates in the IEEE and IETF standardization work in the area of LANs and TCP/IP, and since 1993 has also been active in ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in the French Silicon Valley. In addition, she is also a founding member of the national Telecommunication Users Association supporting users?? needs and collaborating worldwide on EU and other transnational telecommunications issues. Rita has already published several books in the field of communication networks, TCP/IP, routing and switching, ITU-T standardization, and technical terminology (including the Communications Technology Terms and Abbreviations Dictionary). She has also written numerous articles for national and international technical magazines, such as Data Communications, Computer Communications, ComputerWorld, and PCWorld, and has presented papers at international conferences and seminars. Having studied and worked in several countries, Rita is multilingual. She is also interested in non-technical issues such as creative thinking and holds an Edward de Bono certificate on General Thinking Skills. Rita can be reached at rita@ieee.org.
9 780201 398618 ISBN 0-201-39861-3 ROUTING AND SWITCHING Rita Puz¢manovį Networking technologies have penetrated into almost everyone??s life, both at work and at home. Different types of underlying technologies have emerged and there is hardly any simple or single-vendor corporate network or internet. The way in which network segments are interconnected has become a challenge for network planners, not only to fulfil current business requirements, but also to allow for future extension and development. Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence? presents a comparison of the two leadingand complementary techniques for interconnecting networks. If you are a network designer, technician or IT decision maker, this book will prove invaluable. It will give you a comprehensive knowledge of the interconnecting possibilities today and potential for the future. Starting from the lowest layers upwards, you will gain knowledge of network interconnections (using bridges, switches, routers or gateways) and will finally reach the advanced stages, giving you a full understanding of the most imminent issues of today??s networks, such as QoL, MPLS and optical switching. This book contains:
- Up-to-date overview of interconnecting technologies
- Technology guidelines for network designers
- Exploration as to how far the integration of routing and switching will reach
- Detailed technical background of all routing, switching (LAN and WAN) and bridging aspects
- TCP/IP orientation with a glance at other architectures, including Novell NetWare, OSI and DECnet
- Discussion on advanced aspects of QoS support (DiffServ, IntServ) and operations of label switching (MPLS), and recent developments in optical switching.
About the author: Rita Puz¢manovį is an independent interworking specialist, instructor and writer. She has developed and taught networking courses to world-wide audience for almost ten years and has become involved in on-line web education in the networking field. She is the author of several books, has written numerous articles for technical magazines and has presented papers at international conferences and seminars.