Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design

James knows what he's talking about. He demonstrates how to improve network performance, add network services, or even create a network from ground. His model make sense: build requirements, architect it , then design while considering numerous and numerous notes of gathered requirements. It sounds difficult but it makes sense; his model is rigorous but ensures a network satisfaction. Buy this book if you are Network Administrator, Engineer, or Designer.

got it and have read through it and so far it's helped in my class

"Network personnel must grasp the big picture and understand it to be able to make the network perform as designed." This pronouncement in the exact middle of this book sums up a key point, which is then illustrated by comparing the network "wizard" who pulls tricks out of his bag to the network designer who conceptualizes an extremely complex and non-linear system and can realize it on time and within budget. The so-called "wizard" can not maintain the highly-reliable high-performing network that is essential to business, while the competent network designer must be able to do so in a reproducible manner. The author defines a disciplined approach to network analysis, architecture, and design that begins by applying a systems methodology to networking, and proceeds through each step sequentially and in great detail. The result is a book that deserves to both be read carefully and then kept open for reference as the design process proceeds.

Easy to read and follow when new to the subject material. One of the better technical texts I've read.

I highly recommend this book for anyone doing network design or for anyone saddled with a network designed by someone else. The second edition still has all the good material from the first edition about flow analysis and requirements analysis. It also has additional information related to network architectures. The new material on architectures for security and privacy is especially relevant to today's environment.I appreciated the explanations of why a systematic approach to network design is even more relevant today than ever due to the complexity of systems, applications, requirements, and even users who are much more sophisticated than they once were. Network engineers who throw capacity at the problem with little analysis should read the book to understand the risks associated with this "methodology." As McCabe states, delay may be as important as capacity; and reliability, maintainability, and availability are often more important than overall throughput. Also, a network designer should practice due diligence in developing reproducible solutions that can be proven to meet the project goals.I like the Preparation section at the beginning of each chapter. The author talks about the prerequisites for understanding the material in the chapter and lists books that the reader can check out first to gain the requisite knowledge. The author applied hierarchy (a theme in the book) even to the list of references! This is a better way of doing a bibliography than the linear list at the end of books that you so often see.My only minor complaint is that I never did get used to RMA standing for reliability, maintainability, and availability. Every time I saw the acronym I had to try to remember what it stood for. But that's minor compared to my overall "thumbs-up" reaction to the book.