Preface

Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design, second edition, is about understanding how networks function and behave in supporting the requirements of users, applications, devices, and traffic flows and how to use this information to build the architectural and design foundations for your network.

Since the writing of the first edition, Practical Computer Network Analysis and Design, a number of concepts introduced in that book have been growing in popularity among network professionals. Traffic flow analysis and the coupling of performance requirements to traffic flows is becoming increasingly important in providing quality of service and differentiating between services within the network. Gathering and analyzing requirements to formally prepare for the network design is now widely recognized as essential to ensure accuracy and consistency within the design. The systems approach, where the network is a resource of a system consisting of users, applications, and devices, is now the model being used to build large-scale computing and communications networks (including grid networks). The processes introduced in that book for analysis and design have been adopted by corporations, universities, and government agencies around the world.

Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design, second edition, expands on these innovative, yet fundamental, concepts and adds a new dimension—network architecture—to the process. Network architecture complements analysis and design, determining the relationships between major functions of the network—security, management, performance, and addressing and routing—upon which the design is based. I have found that adding network architecture to the analysis and design processes has significantly improved the resulting designs by considering security, management, performance, and addressing and routing earlier in the process.

Approach

Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design, second edition, will help you understand and define your network architecture and design. It examines the entire system, from users and their applications, to the devices and networks that support them.

This book was designed to be used in undergraduate and graduate programs in network engineering, architecture, and design, as well as for professional study. It is structured to follow the logical progression of analyzing requirements, which flow into the network architecture, which forms the basis for the network design. When I teach network analysis, architecture, and design at universities, corporations, and conferences, I find that the material in this book is readily adapted by students' as part of their engineering process.

In this book, I provide you with step-by-step procedures for doing network analysis, architecture, and design. I have refined this process through years of architecting and designing large-scale networks for government agencies, universities, and corporations, and I have incorporated the ideas and experiences of expert designers throughout the book. Like an open standard for a technology or protocol, the procedures in this book are the result of several contributions and offer you the cumulative experience of many network architects and designers.

I tackle some of the hard problems in network analysis, architecture, and design and address real architecture and design challenges, including how to:

• Gather, derive, and define real requirements for your network

• Determine how and where addressing and routing, security, network management, and performance are implemented in the network

• Evaluate and choose network technologies, such as Fast/Gigabit/10G Ethernet, SONET, POS, and others, for your network

• Evaluate and choose mechanisms to interconnect these technologies, such as switching, routing, and flow-based mechanisms

• Determine where to apply routing protocols (RIP/RIPv2, OSPF, BGPv4, MPLS), as well as classful and classless IP addressing mechanisms

• Determine where to apply performance mechanisms, including quality of service, service-level agreements, and policies in your network

In addressing challenges such as these, I provide guidelines, examples, and general principles to help you in making the tough decisions. You may find some or all of them to be useful, and I encourage you to modify them to fit your architecture and design needs.

For those using this book in a class or for self-study, each chapter concludes with a number of exercises. In addition, the Web page for this book at the publisher's web site (www.mkp.com) contains additional material useful in your progress through the book, as well as a password-protected solutions manual to the exercises available to instructors.