This book is an introduction to the design of data networks from a management point of view. It would help the nontechnical manager, or management science student, develop enough of an understanding of the technical aspects of data network design to be able to ask intelligent questions in their dealings with vendors and technical staff personnel. It could also be of value to the technical person who has discovered a need to understand the business considerations involved in data network design and management.

While including such traditional subjects as tariffs and carriers, the author ignores the discussion of telephony, teleconferencing, etc., that fills most telecommunications management texts. The author limits his discussion to only those aspects of telecommunications that relate directly to data networks design. This is both the strength and the weakness of the book. For some, the concentration on the common, corporate networking environment will not meet their needs for information on integrating the new data communications services into their operations. Also, the author’s focus on IBM style networks, with a side reference to DECNET, may seem limited to those of us who live in an asynchronous world. We must realize, however, that the business world in the US is mainly IBM, so this emphasis is appropriate.

Part I, titled Elements of a Design, covers: (1) Lines, (2) Equipment, (3) Software, (4) Demand, and (5) Design Goals. This part is an introduction to the terms and concepts used in this field. The author makes good use of analogies and cost-oriented examples to provide simple definitions of complex, technical terminology. For example, in Chapter Three the discussion on software contains some of the best descriptions of BSC, SDLC, and the OSI references, for nontechnical readers, that I have read.

Part II, entitled Assembling Elements into a Design, includes chapters (6) Designing Distributed Networks, (7) Calculating Response Time, (8) Designing Centralized Networks, (9) A Design Exercise: Yankee Securities, and (10) After the Design. Part Two takes the elements introduced in Part One and explains how to connect them into a functional, cost effective, network design. The author shows you how to divide the complex relationships of a network into manageable pieces, and how to connect those pieces together in an orderly and manageable way. To take some of the “mystery” out of network design, the author introduces some of the algorithms and equations that are needed, and takes you through some hand calculation exercises. A case study, of a medium size brokerage house, is included.

Overall this book is exactly as the author describes it. It is not a book that tries to teach you the answers to all the questions involved in the design of a data network; it is a book that will teach you the questions to ask.