Network Infrastructure and Architecture: Designing High-Availability Networks

PREFACE

Modern communications networks consist of collections of network elements connected by communications paths. Network elements and communications paths depend on, or are developed as, three fundamental layers: (1) optical transmission facilities, which carry information between network elements; (2) protocol engines, which enforce the constructive discipline of communications protocols and provide many protocol supported capabilities; and (3) switching and queuing components, which direct information to its intended destination. Protocol engines, switching/queuing components, and optical interfaces are used to construct network elements; network elements are then connected by optical transmission facilities to form communications networks. This book provides an introduction to these building blocks and to the networks formed by their aggregation for advanced undergraduate students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science.

We take a unique approach to this material by covering the ideas underlying these networks, the architecture of the network elements, and the implementation of these network elements in optical and VLSI technologies. The authors believe the nature of these networks to be in large part determined by these twin underlying implementation technologies, and that it is useful for the student to study networks in this broader, implementation-oriented context. Consequently, in this book we show how communications systems are implemented ...