It cannot be said about many protocols that they have been in continuous use for close to a decade at an overwhelming number of sites throughout the world. Those are precisely the characteristics of TCP/IP, however. All computers connected to the ARPANET have been required to implement the TCP and IP protocols since 1983, and the protocols seem to have stood the test of time.

To find out about the design of TCP/IP, you used to have two options: find the appropriate guru who would be willing to answer your questions, or read through the many hundreds of requests for comments (RFCs) that document the design. Given this relatively inaccessible topic, it is a pleasure to see such a carefully researched and readable book as Black has written. In all fairness, Black states that “the intent of this book is to gain a general understanding of TCP/IP…there is no substitute for the actual source documents (the RFCs).” This book, says Black, is intended for the newcomer, assuming only a basic understanding of data communications. For more advanced information on TCP/IP, Black refers to volume 2 of Comer’s book [1]. The preface explains that “the emphasis of this book is on the lower communications layers of the TCP/IP standards with an overview of the application layer.”

Chapter 1, “TCP/IP and the Internet,” discusses the general organization of the internet, the purpose of the RFCs, the relationship of TCP/IP to the OSI model, and issues such as the working of ports and sockets. Chapter 2, “Introduction to Networks, Bridges, Gateways, and Routers,” gives an overview of the different types of networks, WANs and LANs, token rings, logical link control, and so on. Chapter 3 talks about “Naming, Addressing, and Routing.” It explains the address resolution protocol, reverse address resolution, address mapping, subnet addressing, and the like. Chapter4 discusses “The Domain Name System (DNS).” Chapters5 and 6 explain the internet protocol (IP), and chapter7 talks about the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the user datagram protocol. Chapter 8 has more information on routing problems, with a discussion of route discovery protocols. Chapter 9, “The Major Application Layer Protocols,” explains the Telnet protocol, the trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP), FTP itself, and the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP).

Though the discussion of the protocols is lucid, a theorist will not find enough information here, for instance, to construct formal verification models (this is where access to the RFCs still comes in handy). The focus is clearly on data structures and message format, with an occasional message sequence diagram. Regrettably, a good discussion of control procedures is missing. The book contains few transition tables or state diagrams. These comments are mostly nitpicking; the goal of this text is to offer a general overview and introduction to the main issues of the TCP/IP suite of protocols, and that goal is fully met.

The remaining chapters contain a wealth of related information. Chapter 10, “Other Protocols,” mentions X Windows applications, remote procedure calls, network file systems, and the network time protocol (NTP). Chapter 11 talks about “Internet Network Management Systems.” Chapter 12 is on “Operating TCP/IP with Other Protocols.” Chapter 13 discusses “TCP/IP and Operating Systems” and, finally, chapter 14 is on “Management Considerations.”

This book is carefully designed and well written. It is well worth reading.