Internet Routing Architectures (2nd Edition)
by Sam Halabi

List Price: $72.00
Our Price: $49.51
You Save: $22.49 (31%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $33.98 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Internet Routing Architectures (2nd Edition)

Book Review: Good overview (1st edition)
Summary: 4 Stars

Some of the more important topics addressed in the book are: 1. IP subnetting and variable-length subnet masks and why they are useful. 2. The different strategies used to handle IP address space depletion, such as creative IP address allocation, classless interdomain routing (CIDR), private IP addressing, and the new IP version 6. In the discussion on CIDR, the author asserts the advantages of using aggregation, in that an Internet Service Provider can advertise one IP network rather than several individual advertisements. This, he says, results in more efficient routing strategies and propgation along with making the route advertisements more stable. The degree of the resulting efficiency is not really quantified by the author however. It would have been interesting to have real-life examples of the resulting gains, or examples taken from simulation modeling. Although such data might seem unnecessary now, since CIDR was proposed as a fix to the depletion problem, it would still be interesting to be able to understand in more detail the advantages of employing CIDR, and with comparing it the planned deployment of IPv6. 3. The discussion of distance vector routing and link-state routing and the advantages and disadvantages between the two. The reader interested in a more rigorous and quantitative comparision between the two routing protocols will not find it here, but such a comparison can be done via simulation modeling. 4. The representation of the BGP neighbor negotiation via a finite state machine. 5. The discussion of the TCP MD5 Signature Option, and its role in protecting BGP from spoofed TCP segments and TCP resets. 6. The building of peer sessions using BGP and how to implement it "internally" in an 'autonomous system.' Peer connections between routers in different autonomous systems are then "external" implementations of BGP. The autonomous systems as explained by the author can be used for example by two users who desire to have a link between them in case of a failure of their ISP. 7. The discussion on route instability and how to control it using aggregation, route dampening, and static route injection. The author spends an entire chapter in fact on the design of stable internets, although the discussion is brief and purely descriptive. The route dampening mechanism is discussed as a tool for controlling route instability. This involves a strategy for penalizing unstable routes and is implemented on CISCO routers (the author gives the commands for doing so explicitly). Although the author does not discuss any, modeling and empirical studies have indicated that a cavalier use of route dampening can be deleterious to a network. For example, it was shown early on in the use of BGP that a single route withdrawal may cause other routers to explore a sequence of alternative paths before deciding that the destination is unreachable. Some researchers have shown that this in turn causes "secondary flaps" which can suppress the threshold of the route flap damping algorithm, and resulting in delayed convergence of the route.

Summary of Internet Routing Architectures (2nd Edition)

The industry's leading resource for Internet routing solutions and scenarios

• Explore the functions, attributes, and applications of BGP-4, the de facto interdomain routing protocol, through practical scenarios and configuration examples
• Learn the contemporary Internet structure and understand how to evaluate a service provider in dealing with routing and connectivity issues
• Master the addressing techniques--including Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR)--that are demanded today to facilitate the Internet's rapid and continuing growth
• Develop optimal routing policies--redundancy, traffic balancing, symmetry, and stability--for your network
• Learn how to seamlessly integrate your intradomain and interdomain routing and manage large and growing autonomous systems

Internet Routing Architectures, Second Edition, explores the ins and outs of interdomain routing network designs with emphasis on BGP-4 (Border Gateway Protocol Version 4)--the de facto interdomain routing protocol.

Using a practical, example-oriented approach, this comprehensive resource provides you with real solutions for ISP connectivity issues. You will learn how to integrate your network on the global Internet and discover how to build large-scale autonomous systems. You will also learn to control expansion of interior routing protocols using BGP-4, design sound and stable networks, configure the required policies using Cisco IOS Software, and explore routing practices and rules on the Internet.

157870233X020206

Sam Halabi--a respected authority on Cisco routers--discusses addressing schemes and the ways in which routing protocols operate within those schemes. The general information serves mainly to set the stage for BGP, which Halabi explains lucidly in theory before getting into design issues and, finally, implementation via router configuration. The book presents practical situations ("Multihoming to a Single Provider," for example, which is subsequently broken down into sub-scenarios about how the multiple connections are used) and steps through the design decisions associated with them. It's also big on diagrams and uses one on nearly every other page to drive home points. The result: this book earns its cover price as a tutorial and as a reference. --David Wall

Topics covered: Means of connecting one network to another, especially by means of Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4) on Cisco Systems routers. There's coverage of addressing and routing-protocol generalities, as well as of BGP tuning for routing inside and outside autonomous systems. Design decisions are a big part of this book's scope.

Certification Central Books

• Subjects > Computers & Technology > Certification
• Hardware
• Networking > Networks, Protocols & APIs