Monday, April 29, 2013

Routing TCP/IP, Volume 1 2nd Edition, Jeff Doyle



Jeff Doyle's 2nd edition of his best-selling book - "Routing TCI/IP Volume 1" is a welcome revision to the cannon required for any CCIE Routing & Switching candidate. Jeff Doyle, along with Jennifer Carroll, has done an excellent job at updating what is considered by many to be THE book on routing. In particular, the new edition does a terrific job at describing the white-elephant in the room - IPv6, IPv6's packet format and how to configure some routing protocols to advertise IPv6 prefixes.

The primary focus of this book discusses the most popular routing protocols - RIPv1 & RIPv2, EIGRP, OSPFv2 and, particular to IPv6, RIPng and OSPFv3. Dedicating over 450 pages to these topics alone makes the book worth itself. A further 130 pages are used to discuss route control (redistribution, filtering and route-maps).

In particular, I was impressed by:

* The book is fully-updated, and is not just a copy-and-paste of subject matter from the first book. For instance, on page 439 is discussed the use of a much misunderstood newer command `area nssa translate type7 suppress-fa'. This is just an example of complex and new commands that are documented.

* Of all the books I have looked at, this book does the best job at introducing oneself to RIPng.

* The book wastes little time discussing site-local addresses for IPv6. As the difficulties of using of IPv6's site-local addresses has rendered ths address as too complex to implement (and was, in fact, deprecated in RFC 3879), this books notes this and moves on. This goes against other recent books that that wastes pages and time discussing IPv6 site-local addresses. As any CCIE candidate will attest, studying time comes at a premium.

There are few cons worth mentioning:

* The book repeatedly incorrectly documents IPv6's link-local addresses as FF80::/10. Link-local addresses start as FE80::/10.

*IS-IS is discussed (which is no longer on the CCIE R&S lab). The book went to press too late to discuss EIGRP for IPv6 and is sorely missed.

*The book does bypass some interesting subtleties that you know Doyle is aware of but are, for the most part, undocumented. For instance, the differences between EIGRP and RIP when using the neighbor command.

The path to the CCIE R&S can be a long (and costly) road. While this book is focused towards candidates for CCIE Routing & Switching Lab, I believe this book would be a welcome addition to any Networkers' bookshelf.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:

The second edition of the book was a long felt need as there have been a lot of changes in the CCIE certification blueprint as well the Cisco IOS.

This is the most highly recommended book for anyone attempting to study for any of the CCIE certifications as Routing and Switching are covered in varying degrees in all the CCIE written Exams.

The detailed coverage of IPV6 is a highpoint of this book as it is very well explained with the help of various examples and also by comparing and contrasting it with IPV4 so as to bring out the true subtleness of and the glaring differences between the two. By showing how each task is done differently with IPV6 makes the difficult and confusing address scheme which is in hex much more understandable. Through out the book where ever applicable the authors use IPV6 addresses during various configuration examples to clarify the concepts.

The principles of route redistribution are explained with the help of case studies and sample output which make this usually difficult to understand and confusing topic much more bearable. Redistribution remains the cause of most problems in the lab and once routes are redistributed a variety of problems crop up. Jeff explains the right way to do this and most importantly what not to do.

The troubleshooting case study at the end of the chapter explains the method to troubleshoot that particular protocol and provides tips on what to basically look for.

Then the troubleshooting exercises provide the opportunity to test the troubleshooting knowledge.

This knowledge comes in handy for the CCIE LAB as time is always short and if something breaks down troubleshooting skills can make the difference between getting your magical Number or a visit to the LAB again.

By totally revising and revamping the contents of the book the authors and reviewers have made sure that this book remains a must buy for all seasoned network engineers and students of Cisco Certifications.

The author Jeff Doyle is a professional services engineer and IPv6 solutions manager. The coauthor Jennifer Carroll is an independent network consultant in Redmond, WA.

I give this book 4 stars on a scale of 5, 5 being the highest. I strongly recommend this book.

Niloufer Tamboly, CISSP

Jeff Doyle has done it again. Routing TCP/IP Volume I second edition has reaffirmed Jeff and Jennifer's excellent pedagogical prowess, with the TCP/IP routing framework. When I read routing TCP/IP volumes I and II several years ago, the excellent presentation of the various routing protocols in a clear case study driven manner helped me develop a firm understanding of the various interior and exterior routing protocols available for TCP/IP. TCP/IP Volume I second edition is a more concise edition of the first edition with several new chapters on IP version 6 specific protocols.

Unlike the 14 chapter, 1026 pages long first edition, the second edition is organized into 14 chapters also but is 910 pages long and comes with a 45 day free online access at safari book online. That's a great deal. The organization of this edition is similar to the first; Part I deals with basic concepts, Part II with interior routing protocols and part three discusses routing controls and interoperability. Part IV is a collection of appendices and solutions to problems discussed throughout the text.

Part one now includes an expanded review of IP version 6 in a chapter by itself. This is arguably one of the better treatments of the subject I have seen in a text and provides a concise introduction to IP version 6 protocol headers, control protocols and addressing.

Part two includes an expanded treatment of RIP version 2 as well as the new RIPng which is an RIP implementation for IP v6. The now deprecated IGRP has been dropped and a totally new chapter on OSPF version 3 explains the updated OSPF for IP v6.

Part three, like one and two also includes updated and new case studies to reflect current and future trends. A new case study on IP version 6 redistribution with route maps shows a simple example of route redistribution from RIPng to IS-IS for IP v6 networks.

Like previous Doyle's work, this book is heavily invested in sample configurations using Cisco IOS, but the clear treatment of technology theories and directions make this book a great reference for all internetworking engineers out there.

The clear and detailed presentation of the materials make this book accessible to networking professionals of all grade, newbie to experts alike. And as organizations prep themselves for the inevitable migration to IP v6 , Jeff Doyle's book is definitely an additional resource for the engineers whose job it will be to provision the change.

Definitely not the be all book on TCP/IP , the book will likely become a key ingredient in the arsenal of network managers, administrators and even researches and an excellent guide to Cisco network professionals and students. If anything, I will recommend this volume, and highly so, to aspiring Cisco Certification candidates and anyone who already owns or have read the first edition. This edition is indeed an upgrade.

Product Details :
Hardcover: 936 pages
Publisher: Cisco Press; 2 edition (October 29, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1587052024
ISBN-13: 978-1587052026
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 2.1 x 9.4 inches

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