Routing and Switching: time of convergence
 9 780201 398618  ISBN 0-201-39861-3  ROUTING AND SWITCHING  Rita Puz¢manová  Networking technologies have penetrated into almost everyone's life, both at work and at  home. Different types of underlying technologies have emerged and there is hardly any simple or single-vendor corporate network or internet. The way in which network segments are interconnected has become a challenge for network planners, not only to fulfil current business requirements, but also to allow for future extension and development.  Routing and Switching: Time of Convergence? presents a comparison of the two leadingand complementary techniques for interconnecting networks. If you are a network designer, technician or IT decision maker, this book will prove invaluable. It will give you a comprehensive knowledge of the interconnecting possibilities today and potential for the future. Starting from the lowest layers upwards, you will gain knowledge of network interconnections (using bridges, switches, routers or gateways) and will finally reach the advanced stages, giving you a full understanding of the most imminent issues of today's networks, such as QoL, MPLS and optical switching.  This book contains:Up-to-date overview of interconnecting technologiesTechnology guidelines for network designersExploration as to how far the integration of routing and switching will reachDetailed technical background of all routing, switching (LAN and WAN) and bridging aspectsTCP/IP orientation with a glance at other architectures, including Novell NetWare, OSI and DECnetDiscussion on advanced aspects of QoS support (DiffServ, IntServ) and operations of label switching (MPLS), and recent developments in optical switching.About the author: Rita Puz¢manová is an independent interworking specialist, instructor and writer. She has developed and taught networking courses to world-wide audience for almost ten years and has become involved in on-line web education in the networking field. She is the author of several books, has written numerous articles for technical magazines and has presented papers at international conferences and seminars.