Cisco ATM Solutions: Master ATM Implementation of Cisco Networks

In 1997 I found myself configuring an ATM/SONET based WAN, with no documentation to turn to other than forum White Papers. What I would have given for this book then!Having read a number of ATM books now, I can say that this is one of the better ones. The writing is relatively clear, and it moves quickly from topic to topic. In addition to the 560+ pages of core text, the book has hundreds of pages of lab exercises and with detailed solutions, and a thick glossary.On the whole this book isn't so golden that I would rank it among the crown jewels of Cisco Press (i.e. the Routing TCP/IP series) but it is a solid book, and covers precisely what the title suggests that it does. If you had to read just ONE book on ATM, you could do worse than to pick this one.

Having had the benefit of having Galina be my instructor for my CCIE boot camp class, I was impressed right from the start! I walked in a pretty Vanilla NP/DP. 2 weeks when I stepped out of that classroom I had felt my skills and knowledge multiply by 3-4x. That is exactly what you will get from this book. You "WILL" be able to walk out to a customer site and not only pitch ATM and sell them on it, but also have the confidence to design, configure, and T.S. ATM if need be. This book gets brought along with my Cisco LAN Switching book now as part of my reference library when I am working on projects. It is also a very integral part of my library. My only complaint is WHY WASN'T THIS RELEASED 2 YEARS AGO??? Keep up the good work Galina, your an invaluable asset to the Cisco community and to the Networking community as a whole!

Ms. Pildush both loves ATM, and believes in it. However, she is also a realist, and clearly aware of how well positioned ATM's competitors are. I found this highly technical book hard to put down, because it articulated a viewpoint. In an understated and very professional way she makes a strong case for ATM vs. Gigabit Ethernet, and ATM vs. IP over Sonet.Still, there were a couple of minor disappointments. Firstly, I didn't get a clear picture of the physical network landscape. I would like someone to draw a map--either a nationwide or global map--that lays out existing wide area networks (ATM, Frame Relay, etc.), and clearly shows what their role is. Secondly, although she does say she prefers ATM as the protocol for DSL, there's almost no discussion of DSL. If ATM becomes the protocol of choice for ADSL, and Ethernet for cable modems, wouldn't the total amount of data strongly affect the overall competition? There's discussion of enumerable routers (why am I not surprised?), and many details (standards, layered architectures, etc.), but even with all the detail, the material seems effortlessly presented, and is easily understood. On balance, a fine job.

ATM is a huge topic and this book does a good job of presenting the fundamentals and the most important things. It has numerous excellent labs, but it is too bad I don't have the expensive ATM hardware to practice them on. Nonetheless, this book presents the material in an easy to read fashion as opposed to the ATM Forum page.

I was thrown into a situation a week ago where I need to come up to speed very quickly in ATM topologies. Cisco ATM Solutions answered all of my questions.The step-by-step introduction to the ATM design made for easy for me to brush-up on ATM principals, and the back of the book with actual designs was great.This book is perfect for the first time ATM'er as well as the seasoned CCIE. A must have in anyone's telephony technology libary.