High Speed LAN Technology Handbook

Citation

Chowdhury, D.D. (2001), "High Speed LAN Technology Handbook", Assembly Automation, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 178-183. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2001.21.2.178.1

The High Speed LAN Technology Handbook provides a detailed description of the architectures, design principles, and problem‐solving techniques associated with local area networks (LANs).

The book starts with an introduction to the Ethernet and discusses topics including the fundamental principles, the ALOHA model, Manchester encoding, IEEE standards, carrier sense multiple access/collision detection(CSMA/CD), interconnection devices, and structured cabling systems. Chapter 2 presents the “Basics of LAN switching”, and provides a technology overview, architecture and design concepts, switch features, the virtual LAN (VLAN), multi‐link trunking (MLT), simple network management, and remote monitoring (RMON).

Chapters 3 and 4 discuss trends of the Ethernet, and the token ring, respectively. Topics covered include asynchronous versus synchronous Ethernet, encoding, fast Ethernet, the 100 Base‐X transceiver, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), and GbE topology and cabling. Also discussed are the token ring (TR) architecture, TR bridging/switching, TR operation, fast TR, and Gigabit TR.

The basics, architecture, modulation and frame structure of wireless LAN (WLAN) are discussed in chapter 5. The infra‐red physical layer (IR PHY) and planning for WLAN are also comprehensively covered. Chapter 6, the final chapter of the book, addresses IP inter‐networking. Topics covered include the layer 3 switch, IP addressing, routeing, voice over IP (VoIP) and IP quality of service (IP QoS).

This book is superbly written and is suitable for both academics and industrialists alike. It emphasises practice rather than theory and clearly presents the most commonly used inter‐networking technologies. Personally, I would recommend keeping a pen and paper close by for noting the definitions of the numerous acronyms used throughout the text.