Review Broadband Network Architectures: Designing and Deploying Triple-Play Services

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Broadband Network Architectures: Designing and Deploying Triple-Play Services

Authors: Chris Hellberg, Dylan Greene, and Truman Boyes
Format: Paperback, 600 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (May 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0132300575
ISBN-13: 978-0132300575

Review by James Pyles
May 10, 2007

I think I'm in love. Ok, I suppose that's beside the point, but this book really spoke to me (no, I'm not off my medications). My first love in this business was networking. Back in the day, I actually earned a CCNA certification with the idea that I'd pursue networking as a career. Time passed and my path changed and eventually, I let the CCNA lapse due to lack of use. Every once in awhile though, I still long to console into a router or switch and run some IOS commands just for giggles. I guess that's why Broadband Network Architectures appeals to me.

What I think draws me to this text is that it's not targeting a particular vendor's technology. I've come across both Cisco and Juniper examples within its pages so there are no favorites here. This book is the right place to come if you want to learn networking and not just one company's version of it. Yeah sure, lots of people earn a CCNA, CCNP or JNCIA (Juniper has a certification program, too), but what are the chances that you'll actually work in a production environment that only uses one vendor's equipment? Even if you end up working in a "Cisco only" house, unless you stay there all your life, you'll eventually change jobs (or want to) and need to know other command syntax besides IOS.

Fortunately, Hellberg, Greene, and Boyes have come to the rescue...at least if you are interested in broadband technologies in general and triple-play services in particular. What exactly is (are?) triple-play services? Resisting the obvious baseball metaphor, if you take a quick look at Wikipedia, you'll see that triple-play services "is a marketing term for the provisioning of the three services: high-speed Internet, television (Video on Demand or regular broadcasts) and telephone service over a single broadband connection. Triple Play focuses on a combined business model rather than on solving technical issues or a common standard".

Yes, marketing is a necessary evil, but the term still makes my skin crawl. Fortunately, outside of the name, there is nothing "marketing-centric" about this text. The authors do a terrific job leveraging their combined experience to provide a resource that teaches the reader how to design, deploy, and maintain a triple-play, multi-play network infrastructure. All the labels being tossed around make it seem like this is a very narrow field of focus, however the technologies involved transfer to a lot of other aspects of networking. Not convinced? How would you like to learn more about Video over IP, MPLS Backbone Networks, PPPoA, and ASDL? Do these terms sound familiar? If they are or you want them to be, you'll find them all (and more) in this book's pages.

While the writing style isn't excessively personal, it's still a fairly comfortable read and the numerous code examples and diagrams add to the ease-of-use of this text. I was a bit disappointed that there seemed to be no companion website for this book. I suppose it's because Prentice Hall is marketing this title as a textbook, but I still think it would have been great to have a site where the reader could get access to further code examples, diagrams, and whatever.

I've reviewed some textbooks that could only be textbooks. In other words, they were boring as heck and unless I had a live instructor helping me work through the pages, I'd fall asleep in an instant. Broadband Network Architectures: Designing and Deploying Triple-Play Services isn't one of those kind of textbooks. If you happen to take a networking class and this is the book your instructor is using, count yourself lucky and charge ahead. If you want to learn the ins and outs of broadband network architectures and you don't happen to be enrolled in a class that teaches that sort of thing, pick up a copy of Hellberg, Greene, and Boyes' book and start teaching yourself. It may not help you pass the CCNA exam, but it'll teach you just a ton about real-world networking. Have fun.

 

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Why should he use that link?

 

Today’s broadband solutions are quite complex and require semiconductor manufacturers to integrate a wide-variety of innovative technologies to offer low power, cost-effective system solutions that address the needs of original equipment manufacturers, service providers, and end-users. This paper provides an overview of the various broadband infrastructure, access and home networking technologies and examines the essential technology building blocks required to deliver end-to-end broadband connectivity from the infrastructure to end-point devices.

READ ALL...***spam deleted***

 

Spammers never cease to amaze me - technical blog spammers especially must be the stupidest people on Earth. Don't they realise that they are alienating their very target audience by spamming other forums? The mind boggles.

 

Thanks James, for the positive review and comments!

We too had read boring technical books and decided to keep the topics as interesting as possible and filled with real world scenarios. The book was written because we felt the need to present a vendor neutral approach to discussing broadband technologies that we were building around the world.

Kind regards,
Truman Boyes

 

That's definately a book I will be investing in!!! Thanks for the review. Dunno how I missed it.

Just what I need to read right now, just about to start a triple play project.

 

Thanks for your kind words, Truman, and for visiting our forums.

-Trip