Techniques for optimizing large-scale IP routing operation and managing network growth 

• Understand the goals of scalable network design, including tradeoffs between network scaling, convergence speed, and resiliency

• Learn basic techniques applicable to any network design, including hierarchy, addressing, summarization, and information hiding

• Examine the deployment and operation of EIGRP, OSPF, and IS-IS protocols on large-scale networks

• Understand when and how to use a BGP core in a large-scale network and how to use BGP to connect to external networks

• Apply high availability and fast convergence to achieve 99.999 percent, or “five 9s” network uptime

• Secure routing systems with the latest routing protocol security best practices

• Understand the various techniques used for carrying routing information through a VPN

Optimal Routing Design provides the tools and techniques, learned through years of experience with network design and deployment, to build a large-scale or scalable IP-routed network. The book takes an easy-to-read approach that is accessible to novice network designers while presenting invaluable, hard-to-find insight that appeals to more advanced-level professionals as well.

Written by experts in the design and deployment of routing protocols, Optimal Routing Design leverages the authors’ extensive experience with thousands of customer cases and network designs. Boiling down years of experience into best practices for building scalable networks, this book presents valuable information on the most common problems network operators face when seeking to turn best effort IP networks into networks that can support Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)-type availability and reliability.

Beginning with an overview of design fundamentals, the authors discuss the tradeoffs between various competing points of network design, the concepts of hierarchical network design, redistribution, and addressing and summarization. This first part provides specific techniques, usable in all routing protocols, to work around real-world problems. The next part of the book details specific information on deploying each interior gateway protocol (IGP)–including EIGRP, OSPF, and IS-IS–in real-world network environments. Part III covers advanced topics in network design, including border gateway protocol (BGP), high-availability, routing protocol security, and virtual private networks (VPN). Appendixes cover the fundamentals of each routing protocol discussed in the book; include a checklist of questions and design goals that provides network engineers with a useful tool when evaluating a network design; and compare routing protocols strengths and weaknesses to help you decide when to choose one protocol over another or when to switch between protocols.

“The complexity associated with overlaying voice and video onto an IP network involves thinking through latency, jitter, availability, and recovery issues. This text offers keen insights into the fundamentals of network architecture for these converged environments.”

–John Cavanaugh, Distinguished Services Engineer, Cisco Systems®

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press‚ which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 4 Ratings

I'm a bit biased.... - 2006-06-07
Reviewer Rating:
Okay, so I'm the author, and I'm a bit biased. :-) But, I just wanted to respond to the reviewer, above, who stated the book was all wrong, and about the new OSPF area type. It is a joke. When you're plowing through this much technical material, it's good to laugh at some things.

If you can find real mistakes in the book, things that you think are really wrong with the principles and concepts explained, then please email Cisco Press, or me.

As for the "real world" part, yes, I agree, this book could be more real world, if it weren't already so long, as it is. We're currently discussing a case study only book that would pair with this one, to provide more real world exposure. The problem is that packing the theory and the real world experience stuff into one book would make a book too big to be practical, and readable.

HTH

:-)

Russ

On the right track, but little detail on dealing with the real world. - 2005-08-08
Reviewer Rating:
Optimal Routing Design is full of good stuff. Full marks for starting the book with the advice "think about what you would like the network to do".

The book contains a wealth of information on how you should design a network if you were starting from scratch. It assists in clarifying the impact of routing protocol configuration choices.

For the operator of an existing network, little information is provided on "how to get there from here". Other issues that aren't really addressed are "Having broken a number of design rules, how far am I from a meltdown?" and "What improvement in service/operating costs/convergence would I see if I followed all the rules?"

Another area that could have seem more material was how map the desired behaviour of the network (traffic flow wise) into design decisions.

Overall a valuable contribution to routing literature. Well done.

A Complete Course - 2005-08-03
Reviewer Rating:
This is a booked aimed at network engineers who want to understand the concepts and theory of designing and deploying a large-scale network. It is also helpful for engineers who are studying for theie CCIE or Cisco network design certification.

As prerequisites, the reader should be familiar with basic routing protocol concepts, including the mechanics of how each protocol works, basic Cisco router configuration, and physical layer interconnectivity. Some review of routing protocol operation is provided in the appendixes, but these are by no means comprehensive reviews.

Perhaps the chapter headings are as good a summary of what the book covers as any description:

Network Design Goals and Techniques
Applying the Fundamentals
EIGRP Network design
OSPF Network Design
IS-IS Network Design
BGP Cores and Network Scalability
High Availability and Fast Convergence
Routing Protocol Security
Virtual Private Networks

This book is designed to be read, not just used as a reference. It provides a consistent story throughout the book and is intended to be read from front to back and providing a complete course in network routing design.

Just enough wrong to make you not beleive what is right - 2006-05-27
Reviewer Rating:
I am not as good at english as I am at networking. This is unforturnate as I can't express how bad this book is. There are mistakes, bad diagrams, and just plain bad formatting.
At one point in the book they actually introduce a new OSPF network type: Totally Stubby Not Really Full Areas. After a heading about it and trying to describe it for a paragraph, they end with this: "Actually, this type of area is made up. It does not exist."
I do not read text books to find out what DOESN'T exist.
I did not give it 1 star as some of the ideas are good; of course I strongly recommend trying all the commands first for yourself. The IDEA of this book was exactly what I wanted, and thats how I was sold on it. Forums have proven better.

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