“It has been nearly ten years since the 5th Edition of Computer
Networks: A Systems Approach was published. Much has changed in that
time, most notably, the explosion of the cloud and smartphone apps onto
the scene. In many ways, this is reminiscent of the dramatic affect the
Web was having on the Internet when we published the 1st Edition of the
book in 1996.
The 6th Edition adapts to the times, but keeps the Systems Approach
as its north star. In broad strokes, we update and improve this new
edition in four main ways:

We refresh the examples to reflect the current state of the world.
This includes deleting anachronisms (e.g., dial-up modem), using
popular applications (e.g., Netflix, Spotify) to motivate the
problems being addressed, and updating the numbers to represent the
state-of-the-art technology (e.g., 10-Gbps Ethernet).
We connect the dots between the original research that led to the
development of technologies like multicast, real-time video
streaming, and quality-of-service, and the now-familar cloud
applications like GoToMeeting, Netflix, and Spotify. This is in
keeping with our emphasis on the design process and not just the
end result, which is especially important today since so much the
Internet is primarily available in proprietary commercial services.
We place the Internet in the broader context of the Cloud, and just
as importantly, in the context of the commerial forces that are
shaping the Cloud. This has minimal impact on the technical details
presented throughout the book, but it is discussed in a new
Perspective section at the end of each chapter. We hope one
side-effect of this discussion is to foster an appreciation for the
Internet’s continuous evolution, and the opportunity for innovation
this represents.
We distill the important principles of network design in a series
of Key Takeaways throughout the book. Each takeaway is a concise
statement of either a general system design rule or a fundamental
networking concept, drawing on the examples presented in the
surrounding text. Pedagogically, these takeaways correspond to the
high-level learning objectives for the book.”

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach

by Larry Pederson, Bruce Davie•Student Price: FREE

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