Data Communications and Networking

Rating:
Summary: Very easy to read and understand
Review: Forouzan made another noble work! This textbook is one of my first group of books in computer networking area. I finished reading this book 2 years ago. It has a clear text, very friendly and easy to read.

I highly recommended this book for everyone interested in Computer Network, especially a student.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent entry level text
Review: I teach a second year under-graduate (degree) course in Data Communications and Networking. This is the first networking paper that students will take. I have used Shay, Stallings and Tanenbaum in the past but have changed to Forouzan because I believe that it does an excellent job of introducing concepts at a level that is readily understood by a novice. Student feedback confirms that it is about the right level and that they feel they actually understand the text - quite a bonus ;-)

Another review recommends the above authors - and I agree they give an excellent treatment of the topic - but they require an advanced student. I would select Stallings or Tanenbaum for a paper that follows the introductory paper (we actually use Comer for the advanced paper which is specifically TCP/IP)

Forouzan's "Data Comms and Networking" is clear, plainly written - yet gives a good depth to the topics being considered. The diagrams and practice questions are excellent.

I highly recommend this book for an introductory under-graduate text.

Rating:
Summary: No regrets
Review: I'll make two separate sets of comments - one for professors and one for students.

Students first... Forouzan is about as easy to read as any book on the subject. Since Forouzan has done a pretty good job of keeping the text up-to-date, however, you may find it difficult to use a previous edition of the text. I would estimate that about 20% of the material is either new or revised in the 3rd edition. The website also has some pretty good student resources, such as notes and related study tools.

For professors... I have been using the text since its first edition and have no regrets. In the third edition, Forouzan departs from the 7-layered OSI model to something he calls the 5-layered Internet model (Application, Transport, Network, DL, Physical), which may not be "standard", but it certainly makes things a little easier when talking about the Internet and modern computer networks. There seems to be enough quantitative material to satisfy those who wish to take a more engineering-centered approach to data comm, although I'm not sure how this text would fly in a school of engineering (my home is a school of business). There are ample online resources for professors, including powerpoint shows and exam materials. The only other text I would consider as a substitute for Forouzan is the slightly more technical text by Stallings, but as I said, I have never had any regrets about Forouzan.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Text
Review: This book gives full coverage of all of the basics of data communications including signals, modulation, transmission media, and ECC. It has a comprehensive coverage of OSI and networking protocols with illustrative details of packet and frame contents with emphasis on the first four layers. There is coverage of most important networking technologies including TCP/IP, ATM, ISDN, frame relay and SONET. The many illustrations are appreciated. The book is well written and easy to follow and has excellent breadth of coverage but it does not develop theoretical aspects or mathematics in areas such as modulation or traffic modeling. I am considering adopting this text for a second-year computer science course.

Rating:
Summary: A Seminal Text
Review: This book is one of the great texts on the subjects covered. It has been a required text for two undergraduate and one (so far) graduate class that I have taken.

Mr. Forouzan's prose is clear and his examples understandable. The only thing that might make portions of this book a difficult read for some people is the complexity of some of the material covered. The book starts at the electrical (Manchester encoding, NRZ, etc.), and gradually builds until the networking process is clear, top to bottom. In terms of completeness, I have not seen another book that covers everything from the LAN to the WAN like this book. Also included are related topics like cellular networks, PSTN, encryption, and even the application layer of the OSI model. The complete OSI model is covered with great depth.