The Art of Computer Networking

Networking is one of the most exciting and important fields in computer science. We now take it for granted that we can send video or photos to our friends via our mobile phones; search the web in milliseconds for the nearest Thai restaurant; or even hold a videoconference across continents in real time, but few understand the underlying technologies which make all this possible.

In The Art of Computer Networking Russell Bradford takes you on a hands-on tour of the most important aspects of networking. By staying sharply focused and avoiding unnecessary peripheral detail, he provides you with a solid foundation to take your skills and studies to an advanced level. He strongly encourages 'learning by doing' and the book is full of practical exercises so you can go out and try your hand at implementing the concepts presented. Progressing step-by-step from the hardware on upwards the reader is led assuredly through the less familiar low-level details towards the applications that they see and use every day.

Key features

§ No-frills approach detailing the key aspects of networking

§ Logically structured, bottom-up approach

§ Practical exercises in every chapter

§ Strong focus on TCP/IP

§ Numerous examples to demonstrate the protocols in action

About the author

Russell Bradford is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath, where he has taught Networking as a final year undergraduate course and as an MSc course. He has much real-life experience of dealing with the IP networks ranging from the high-level management of departmental networks down to low-level simulations of the Internet.