Computer Networks and Internets: United States Edition

Computer Networks and Internets is appropriate for all introductory-to-intermediate courses in computer networking, the Internet, or Internet applications; readers need no background in networking, operating systems, or advanced mathematics.

Leading networking authority Douglas Comer presents a wide-ranging, self-contained tour of the concepts, principles, and technologies that enable today’s Internet to support applications ranging from web browsing to telephony and multimedia. This Fifth Edition has been thoroughly reorganized, revised, and updated: it includes extensive new coverage of topics ranging from wireless protocols to network performance, while reducing or eliminating coverage of older protocols and technologies. Comer begins by illuminating the applications and facilities offered by today’s Internet. Next, he systematically introduces the underlying network technologies and protocols that make them possible: low-level data communications; packet switching, LAN, and WAN technologies; and Internet protocols such as TCP, IP, UDP, and IPv6. With these concepts and technologies established, he introduces several of the most important contemporary issues faced by network implementers and managers, including quality of service, Internet telephony, multimedia, network security, and network management. Comer has carefully designed this book to support both top-down and bottom-up teaching approaches. Students need no background in operating systems, and no sophisticated math: Comer relies throughout on figures, drawings, examples, and analogies, not mathematical proofs.

Dr. Douglas Comer is an internationally recognized expert on TCP/IP protocols, computer networking, and the Internet. One of the researchers who contributed to the Internet as it was being formed in the late 1970s and 1980s, he was a member of the Internet Architecture Board, the group responsible for guiding the Internet's development. He was also chairman of the CSNET technical committee, a member of the CSNET executive committee, and chairman of DARPA's Distributed Systems Architecture Board.

Comer has consulted for industry on the design of computer networks. In addition to giving talks in US universities, each year Comer lectures to academics and networking professionals around the world. Comer's operating system, XINU, and implementation of TCP/IP protocols (both documented in his textbooks), have been used in commercial products.

Comer is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. He is currently on leave from Purdue, serving as VP of Research Collaboration at Cisco Systems. Recently, Comer has taught courses on networking, internetworking, computer architecture, and operating systems. He has developed innovative labs that provide students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with operating systems, networks, and protocols. In addition to writing a series of best-selling technical books that have been translated into 16 languages, he served as the North American editor of the journal Software — Practice and Experience for 20 years. Comer is a fellow of the ACM. For additional information, visit his web site.