Routing, Flow, and Capacity Design in Communication and Computer Networks (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive collection of network design problems
Review: A variety of technologies for telecommunication networks is overwhelming. There is no single well-known recipie, telling how to design telecommunication networks. And therefore modelling and comparison of different approaches is very important before choosing the right solution to be implemented. This is especially true for backbone telecommunication networks because there stakes are very high and many factors that have to be taken into account make the design process very complex.

The network design models based on optimization theory are probably most commonly encountrered in the field. And that's exactly what this book teaches the reader- how to model different telecommunication networks with a help of optimization theory. Most of the material in the book concerns multi-comodity flow networks. In my opinion, the book is the most up-to-date and comprehensive collection of network design problems, methods and algorithms, illustrated with extensive examples and accompanied with a right amount of theoretical background and information on existing networking technologies. It covers all the spectrum of problems and design methods- from the most simple to the most advanced, presenting even "hot" research topics. Personally I learned a lot from chapters on multi-layer network design and advanced decomposition methods.

Also I think the book is rather universal and can be used either as a course book (it includes a lot of exercises at the end of each chapter), or as a reference manual (well defined notation makes it easy to find and understand the desired design problem even without reading a chapter from beginning).

This book is a good choice for everyone studying or actively working with network design. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Useful literature!
Review: Literature that considers communication system problems, tends to be either too practical (not general enough, providing only "ad hoc-solutions"), or theoretical to the extent that the desired "real-world property" is lost (or hopelessly hidden...). This book is a true exception, giving a well-balanced mix of theory and practice, presented in a most understandable and inspiring way. A broad range of relevant communication system problems (for the taken approach, probably all (?)) are discussed, practically all of which are dealt with in a multi-commodity, network optimization fashion. The book is self-contained in the sense that the prerequisites are covered by its appendices. In my opinion, a book of this type (there are not many!) is essential whether you are an engineer or a researcher in this field, simply because that it constitutes a "missing link" between theory and practice.



Rating:
Summary: That's what I needed !
Review: The book covers a broad range of network design/optimization problems in a comprehensive way, and contains a state-of-the-art discussion of a lot of hot topics, e.g., on multi-layer resilient networks, on shortest-path routing (of the OSPF-type) networks, and on fair networks. The reader can also find useful appendices on general optimization methods, generalized shortest-path algorithms, and the notion of NP-completeness, which makes the book well-suited also for beginners. For this reason the book is very helpful for operators in the process of training their network planning staff, as we have found out in our organization, Telekomunikacja Polska. In the case the authors prepare the second edition of the book, I hope they will continue to cover the up-to-date applications and the current optimization methods in the network planning domain, in the way they did in this first edition.