Routing in the Internet (2nd Edition): Current Amazon U.S.A. One-Edition Data

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Routing in the Internet (2nd Edition)

   by Christian Huitema

  Hardcover:
    Prentice Hall PTR
    15 January, 2000

   US$47.19

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Editorial description(s):

Amazon.com
Routing in the Internet takes a carefully measured, textbook-style approach to a very complex topic, and rewards the attentive reader with a deep knowledge of how packets traverse networks. Author Christian Huitema begins by explaining the mechanics of IP addressing and returns to that theme (as it applies to IPv4 and IPv6) throughout this book.

Once he's laid his addressing groundwork, Huitema sets out to explain interior routing. He begins with the relatively simple (and relatively weak) Routing Information Protocol (RIP), using it as a vehicle for introducing routing terminology and concepts before explaining why RIP is not a good solution for most real-world internetworking problems and moving on to more robust routing algorithms. His coverage of Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) compares favorably to others'--he is careful to explain each aspect of OSPF (including link state databases) thoroughly. Exterior protocols are covered similarly well. Huitema isn't stingy with coverage of special situations, such as those created by mobile IP and IP multicasting.

Huitema's style tends to emphasize the theoretical aspects of the subjects he covers, and he writes with a somewhat academic tone. (You'll appreciate his liberal notes if you want to follow up on particular details of his presentation.) He makes good use of packet and network diagrams. You'll be pleased by the depth and detail of the material in Routing in the Internet and, despite its lack of practical material, will find it useful in real-life router configuration work and in studying for Cisco certification exams. --David Wall

Topics covered: Internet Protocol (IP) addressing (including versions 4 and 6), address resolution, routing metrics, distance vector protocols, and (especially) routing algorithms. Covered interior routing protocols include Routing Information Protocol (RIP, versions 1 and 2) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), while covered exterior routing protocols include Exterior Gateways Protocol (EGP) and Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). Futures, especially multicasting, receive attention as well.

From Book News, Inc.
For users of the Internet without much technical background, explains the architecture and routing protocols without which the Information Superhighway would be a trackless waste. Describes the routing information and other internal protocols; CIDR; and new developments lurking behind the next gigabyte. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Card catalog description
"Routing in the Internet, Second Edition offers practical insight for architecting 21st century enterprise networks. You'll find all this, and more: Internet Quality of Service (QoS) technologies, including policy routing and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP); extensively updated coverage of the OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) intracompany protocol; revamped, in-depth coverage of BGPv4 for connecting enterprises to Internet Service Providers; IPv6: Rationale, goals, technical details, and key migration issues; Internet multicasting: how it works, and how you can use it today; and mobile IP: a preview of anywhere, anytime Internet connectivity."--BOOK JACKET.

The publisher, Prentice-Hall ECS Professional
First comprehensive treatment of routing protocols in the Internet. Will cover multicasting (audio and video over Net) and I Prg (next generation IP). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap
1 Introduction to Routing in the Internet

I first heard of the Internet in 1982. At that time, it was still centered around the Arpanet. Its access was reserved to a few research centers around the world. Our own research center, INRIA in France, could perhaps have joined its transatlantic extension, Satnet, but we never quite managed to convince the funding agencies of the usefulness of such a project. In fact, we were quite happy to acquire an indirect connection through the UNIX-based Usenet network a few years later. We had to wait until 1988 for a direct connection with the NSFnet, the interconnection network funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. 1.1 The Worldwide Internet

The situation has changed a lot since that time. There were only a few hundred machines connected to the Internet by 1982: it was pretty much the playground for an elite group of computer scientists. That number had grown to 2.5 million connected computers on January 1, 1994, when the first edition of this book was being prepared. By the time of the second edition, in July 1999, there are about 60 million computer addresses registered in the domain name service. An estimated 20 million users had access to it, then. Nobody really knows how many users have access to the Internet now; estimates vary between 100 and 200 million. The initial core of experts has been joined by a variety of teachers and students, researchers and merchants, journalists and engineers. More than half of the connected computers in the United States already belonged to commercial companies in 1994, while academia only represents one-sixth of the network in 1999. The initial Internet was mostly a U.S.-only network, with a few appendices in a couple of friendly countries. By 1994, one could estimate that over half of the net was located in the United States, about one-third in Europe, with a growing presence in Asia and other continents. This figure has not changed much in 1999, as the North American networks have kept growing just as fast as the international networks. This rapid increase of the commercial and international participation is characteristic of the recent evolution and probably explains the amazing growth of the recent years: the net seems to double its size every year! 1.2 How Is It Organized?

The Internet is not "one network" in the common sense of the term: there is no such thing as one huge international company that would provide connections to users in various continents. Instead, the Internet is "a loose interconnection of networks," belonging to many owners. One usually distinguishes three levels of networks: organizational, regional, and transit.

The companies and institutions attached to the Internet generally manage an internal network. Its complexity can vary widely with the size of the organization. A typical example may be the research unit of INRIA in Sophia-Antipolis, where I used to work. The local network consisted of six Ethernet segments connecting about 300 workstations scattered in six buildings. The segments were connected to each other by a fiber-optic FDDI backbone that was directly attached to our supercomputers and service machines. Connection between the ring and the segments was assured by several specialized routers, using the Internet protocols. Indeed, this network was more complex than those of several small companies which often consist of one single Ethernet or token ring network. But large universities often have thousands of machines to connect, and multinational companies may have to manage a worldwide mesh of links between their different sites.

Most organizations' networks are connected to the Internet through a "regional" provider which manages a set of links covering a state, a region, or maybe a small country. These regional networks provide connectivity to their customers; they also render a number of related services, such as helping users to manage their networks or to get Int ernet addresses and providing mailboxes for isolated users. The regional nature of these providers is generally derived from these service relations: proximity helps. There is, however, no regional monopoly. Several companies may well compete in the same city or in the same region. There is also no restriction on the scope of the provider. Some companies that started in a limited geographic area are currently expanding their operations to other regions, maybe other countries. In fact, we are currently observing the burgeoning activity of a new industry. While the market grows, many new operators start their own activities. Some will succeed and become the giants of tomorrow. Some will remain small and concentrate on a particular corner of the market. Many others will probably be absorbed.

Being connected to other Internet users in the same city, even in the same state, is not quite sufficient. The purpose of the Internet is more ambitious: worldwide connectedness. This connectivity may be provided by a "transit" provider. The first network that clearly positioned itself as primarily a transit provider was the NSFnet. This successor of the Arpanet had a deliberate policy of allowing connection only through intermediate, regional providers. Another well-known transit system is the EBONE in Europe, which is operated in cooperation by several European regional networks. Such an interconnection is not adequate when the regional networks have grown so large that they already encompass many regions or many countries. In that case, bilateral or multilateral arrangements are preferred. The NSFnet has now been decommissioned, and the transit services are provided by a small number of very large international networks run by commercial organizations. 1.3 A Study of Routing

Many books have already been written on the Internet; yet another one would not be the most useful addition to the shelves of our libraries. This book, however, seeks to address one very specific topic: the organization of routing--the structure that glues together the worldwide Internet. It is divided into five parts. The first part includes three chapters: the general principles of the Internet architecture, the presentation of the Internet Protocol (IP) itself, and the presentation of IPv6, which has been designed as a replacement for IP. Each of the following chapters will present both the state of the art, based on the current version of IP (IPv4), and the provisions that are made for IPv6.

Three chapters cover the routing within organizations' networks. chapter 5 is devoted to RIP, the old Internet routing protocol. It is also an introduction to routing protocols in general, detailing the easy-to-understand "distance vector" technology. Then in chapter 6 we present the more modern Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol, an example of the "link state" technology. chapter 7 completes this second part by discussing the other routing protocols in use in the Internet.

The interconnection between organizations' networks and providers requires another set of protocols, more concerned with the "management of connectivity" than with the dynamics of routing. Part 3 includes four chapters presenting the first "Exterior Gateway Protocol" (EGP), then the modern "Border Gateway Protocol" (BGP). chapter 10 is devoted to the recent development of "Inter-Domain Routing," while chapter 11 presents the general requirements of "policy-based routing."

The fourth part of the book is devoted to the recent advances in routing technology, with three chapters detailing the support of multicast transmission, mobile hosts, and real-time applications. This is a natural introduction to the last part of the book, which presents the transition to the new Internet Protocol. This transition will be necessary if we want to connect thousands of billions of hosts to the twenty-first century's Internet!

From the Back Cover

The Internet routing best-seller-now completely updated!

Nobody knows more about Internet routing than Christian Huitema, former head of the Internet Architecture Board. Now, he's completely updated his classic best-seller on Internet routing to deliver the critical information that networking and software professionals need right now. Routing in the Internet, Second Edition offers unparalleled practical insight for architecting 21st century enterprise networks. You'll find all this, and more:

Internet Quality of Service (QoS) technologies, including policy routing and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)
Extensively updated coverage of the OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) intra-company protocol
Revamped, in-depth coverage of BGPv4 for connecting enterprises to Internet Service Providers
IPv6: Rationale, goals, technical details, and key migration issues
Internet multicasting: how it works, and how you can use it today
Mobile IP: a preview of anywhere, anytime Internet connectivity

PC Week called the first edition of Routing in the Internet "surprisingly approachable"; IEEE Communications called it "excellent." Communications and networking professionals worldwide will call Routing in the Internet, Second Edition absolutely indispensable.

About the Author

CHRISTIAN HUITEMA is the former head of the Internet Architecture Board, which oversees the evolution of Internet protocols. He is currently Chief Scientist and Fellow at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore), specializing in Internet telephony. In addition to his classic Routing in the Internet, First Edition, he is author of IPv6: The New Internet Protocol.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Introduction to Routing in the Internet

I first heard of the Internet in 1982. At that time, it was still centered around the Arpanet. Its access was reserved to a few research centers around the world. Our own research center, INRIA in France, could perhaps have joined its transatlantic extension, Satnet, but we never quite managed to convince the funding agencies of the usefulness of such a project. In fact, we were quite happy to acquire an indirect connection through the UNIX-based Usenet network a few years later. We had to wait until 1988 for a direct connection with the NSFnet, the interconnection network funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Disappointing work from a master in the field..., May 11, 2000
I bought this book with high hopes. Huitema's first edition was exceptional, covering in detail protocols in use on the Internet at the time. What it lacked in theory, it made up for in practical applicability. When combined with Radia Perlman's _Interconnections (1st Edition)_ and access to the IETF RFC database, readers had access to all the information they could ever need about Internet routing.

Then Perlman's 2nd edition was released. What _Interconnections_ had lacked before in practical details is more than addressed in that amazing book. One might hope that Huitema's 2nd edition would catch up to Perlman's in theoretical detail, making both books equivalent references for the field of Internet routing.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Huitema's second book reads much like the first. The "2nd Edition" enhancements seem to center on coverage of "new technologies" such as label switching and quality of service. None of the background that _Routing on the Internet_ lacked in the first edition is made up for here, and I found some of the coverage of new technologies to be superficial or poorly presented.

Moreover, the presentation of the material is simply bad. The book is poorly edited, with grammatical errors throughout the text and fairly unclear writing. Worse, the diagramming style is extremely inconsistant. Throughout much of the book, the diagrams used appear to simply be typeset ASCII pictures!

There are also points in the book where it appears that dated, inappropriate text from the first book was literally pasted into the second book. For instance, at one point the author asserts that "not many companies are making money off of Internet routing devices" (paraphrase), and "a company called cisco" (which he continues to lowercase) is a vendor of the most popular routers. Since he laters makes mention of Ipsilon, I'm guessing he hasn't just been asleep as Internet routing companies rampaged across the NASDAQ.

Huitema is at his best when giving his opinions about aspects of Internet technologies. His recommendations are usually spot-on, and the historical background he provides about protocol development rivals the similar, excellent content in Perlman's _Interconnections_.

However, with _Interconnections 2_ on the shelves, I can't see a good reason to shell out ... for this book. Huitema covers some technologies that Perlman doesn't, but Perlman covers essential technologies (such as switching and multicast forwarding) far better than _Routing on the Internet_.

Another look to Internet, July 29, 2000
There is a general rule of 80/20. It means 80% of networking books cover 20% of the available networking technologies because they are most common. The average book about internet routing includes 10% of RIP and IGRP, 25% of OSPF, 20% of EIGRP, 20% of BGP and just few words about multicasting, IPv6, resourse reservation, Internet architecture, mobile hosts etc. Another common feature of such books that they give you static shot of current state.

Usually it's more then enough for day to day operations and many people are completely satisfied. But some people want to learn a bit about other 20% and see piture in motion. This book is exactly for them. Probably it doesn't help you much in Cisco router configuration, but you can learn internet history and future from the routing point of view. You can learn a way how routing protocols are developing, what are the current problems and what to expect in a recent future.

This book was included in the CCIE library set and many people were really disappointed because it isn't focused on Cisco routing and switching. In opposite, the most part of this book covers everything that is usually not included in Cisco books. From CCIE or Cisco prospective this book is not really interesting, but it has another goal.

A few more words about this book. It was written by French guy, and he is not Cisco employee. His style is completly different from e.g. Cisco press books'. Cisco wants to show you how well and smoothly it has solved problems, and this book wants to show you what are the problems and drawbacks of current solutions. Cisco gives you answers and this book sometimes just states questions without answers. It's more academic review then manual. Keep it in mind if you are going to buy it.

The final words. Sometimes the language is dull and too dry but if you want to know current state of the internet evolution this book gives you information which is hard to find in any other single book. This book is very good but it's goal is different. It's like the most part of passengers have questions about tickets and they ask ticket agency. But some of them might want to learn more about airplane itself. They can find very good book about airplanes. It's also interesting book but it's definitly different and optional reading for the traveler. The same about this one. It's optional and not the highest priority book but it really gives you a lot of new information about internet routing.

Disappointed, April 5, 2000
I dont know what the fuss is all about regarding this book. Ihave been dealing with IP and IPoverATM networks for three yearsnow. All this time I kept hearing people talk about this book so finally I picked it up and find only one word to define the subject treatment 'DRY'. The book has no spark and in certain chapters its totally incoherent, specially the chapter on BGP. The edition that I have does not talk about BGP4.

I've always found RFCs as my source of information and I regret wasting time on this book.

On a different topic if you like an interesting treatment of IP/ATM integration, read 'Switching in IP networks'. This one definately goes beyond RFCs!

The perfect Big Picture book to get started., January 22, 2001
My manager instructed me to learn about BGP. We're talking total novice here. First I tried looking in some CISCO books but they were highly specific towards CISCO products, and that wasn't what I was looking for. Besides, we weren't using CISCO. What I needed to see was the big picture.

This book gives the big picture. Quite honestly I wish there were more books like it.

One reviewer mentioned that the book was rather dry and that he'd "rather read the RFC's". Personally, I find the RFCs much more difficult reading, because they assume prior knowledge.

This book won't give you recipies on how to configure a certain product. Products come and go, new technologies arrive. What this book does give you is a balanced view of the many protocols out there and how they work. It will be on my shelf at work for quite some time to come, while the CISCO books grow old and stale.

If you configure routers, buy this book!, October 24, 1997
Without bogging down in vendor specifics, this book gives you a clear vision of routing protocols and when to use each. The book was easy to follow and give enough packet detail, it could be used to debug routing problems.

An excellent, though a bit dated, book., May 30, 2000
This is a very good encyclopedic book about routing, written by a writer who shows his talents and knowledge.

It gives a very thorough cover of routing at the level of a good study book, which is lacking from the popular TCP/IP books.

This book was written some years ago, and it's age shows, e.g. in it's cover of BGP4 and IPv6.

I recommend this book wholeheartly, with the warning that people who need to actually work with specific routing protocol(s) nowadays should buy a current book.

Excellent perspective on IP networking and routing, October 6, 1998
Highly authoritative book on IP and routing protocols. Lots of sophisticated analysis and perspective on how routing works and why. The best networking book I've read. I refer to it frequently for its sections on OSPF and BGP.

A lucent treatment of a complicated subject!, October 12, 1997
I read this book in preperation for the Cisco CCIE cources and found that I was well prepared. This concise text offers a complete description of every major routing protocol in use today. If you manage, troubleshoot or design networks... You Need This Book!

A good book re-warmed, May 27, 2002
This is a good book, but, there is nothing in it that warranted
a second edition. Certain areas, such as multicast and
multi-protocol BGP are due for a complete re-write, but
that is barely reflected in the book. In short, the new edition
is good-- if you need it, buy it. But, if you already have
the first edition, don't bother, or you will be disappointed.

Routing, April 8, 1999
Routin

Excellent, March 13, 1997
Detailed and very readable analysis of the major routing protocols. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in knowing more about the underlying routing protocols of the internet. This work goes beyond the usual slim treatment that is usually found in other books, which will usually mention RIP, OSPF, EGP etc. and finish with it in a paragraph.

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