FDDI: A High Speed Network
Ryszard Sobczak · The Computer Journal · 1994
Token Ring (TR) networks appeared on the LAN market a little later than Ethernets, but their operating rules were much more sophisticated.This is the reason why they are more expensive.They found users first of all in the office environment and among IBM customers.General books about computer networks contain only short, incomplete or disjointed descriptions of this standard.I was very glad to see a book exclusively devoted to TR standards.The author assumes that this book is for readers with 'divers backgrounds of knowledge and experience'.Readers with little knowledge and experience should be able to read the first two chapters of this book while those with general knowledge about models used in computer networks can skip these chapters.The presentation of TR nets is done atypically.The author begins with elements with which the user is familiar, i.e. cabling system, devices and network operating systems (Chapter 3).Afterwards, he presents data formats and operational details (Chapter 4).An interesting, but controversial idea is to include in a book about TR also a chapter about FDDI networks (Chapter 5).The same topology and the presence of a token are not sufficient grounds to say that FDDI is a kind of TR net (p.59).The only reason to include this chapter is to explain to the end-user of big mesh networks with an FDDI backbone the differences between TR and FDDI.Unfortunately this is not clearly done.My doubts found confirmation in the absence of FDDI networks in Chapters 6 and 7.An important part of this book is dedicated to devices which enable networks to grow (Chapter 6 and 7).With bridges and routers one can build big and wide structures.The author concentrates his attention on internetwork devices.He also explains many routing algorithms.It will be useful to see more examples of network structures which set off advantages and disadvantages of bridges, routers and routing algorithms.These structures are very important in order to understand how to use well-known devices.As we approach the end of this book we cease to move in a world of ideas and we are in the world of products.In Chapter 8 we have IBM gateway devices and software, in Chapter 9 the author presents parts of different network management software.The goal of this presentation is to illustrate the facilities needed to realise management tasks.It is a very good book for TR network users who want to know 'which way the wind lies'.It is a clearly written book with many examples and illustrations.