Overview

Writing this book has been like climbing the mountains of packet broadband networking technologies. I set out on the journey with two goals in mind: First, to climb to the top of the mountain and survey the vast, rapidly developing field, and second, to make the climb as joyful as the landscape. It has been a pleasant journey. I hope the reader enjoys this survey of the landscape of packet broadband networking technologies as much as I have enjoyed presenting it.

First, a few words about the title of this book. This book is intended to be a technology handbook rather than a technical handbook. A technology handbook introduces a broad range of technologies with a central theme; the focus is on how each technology works, the main components of each technology, and its practical applications. In contrast, a technical handbook book focuses on the bolts, nuts, and nitty-gritty details of one particular technology.

This book covers comprehensively the widely deployed packet technologies, such as X.25, frame relay, ATM, and IP. And that is just the beginning. The book builds on these established packet networking technologies to cover a wide range of packet networking technologies that will mold communications technologies for years to come. Among these are DWDM networks, optical Ethernet, passive optical networks, free space optical networks, wireless LAN, wireless personal area networks, multi-protocol label switched (MPLS) networks, packet VPN, and many more.