For many years, Comer’s book has been an excellent source for those who want to learn about or teach the fundamentals of networking. Obviously, this has not changed with the new updated edition. Being an overview of all the related techniques, from the physical up to the routing layers (complemented with some additional issues, for example quality and management), the book provides a broad view on the most important aspects of modern computer networks.

The presentation follows a bottom-top approach:

• Part 1: the concept of internetworking and a sketch on applications close to each person (like web or email);
• Part 2: aspects of physical transmission (involving not only an overview of various channels, but also detection/correction coding, modulation, multiplexing, and access technologies);
• Part 3: a detailed description of various aspects of layer 2;
• Part 4: a precise discussion on routing and transport layers; and
• Part 5: supplementary topics covering quality of service, Internet protocol (IP) telephony, security, management, software-defined networking (SDN), and the Internet of things (IoT).

Parts 3 and 4 are most important for a reader preparing for administration work; therefore, they are very thorough in their presentation of practical aspects of networking.

Aside from refreshing the contents (for example, more emphasis than before is now put on IPv6), this new edition contains two totally new chapters, focused on SDN and IoT. While they are of limited length, apparently due to a concept adopted for the whole book, they present the most fundamental aspects of the new approaches in a way that is easy to read and comprehend even for a layperson in these fields, especially because they reference the material shown in other parts of the work. Generally, the material given throughout the book can be understood without any special preparation, except for secondary school math and science.

This year, for the first time, I will lead a basic course in computer networking for undergraduate students, and I am going to use this book as a source for my lectures, at least as a basis for preparation for a theoretical written exam. The fact that the work also gives some summary questions makes it perfect for self-study; teachers can also use it to prepare for a semester course. The book is not bound to any specific vendor or platform, so it would be a good supplement to books supporting courses with networking laboratory exercises [1,2,3].

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