Computer networks and communication technologies have evolved drastically since the inception of computer networks. Present-day computer networks need to deal with the constantly changing demands of high data rates, mobility, and security, to name a few, while maintaining acceptable quality of service (QoS). Of late, numerous applications have come into existence, each one having its own service requirements. To handle these new applications with varied service requirements, it is essential to change the traditional network architectures. This need has given rise to the idea of service-oriented network architectures. As the name suggests, in service-oriented networks the network architecture is based on the service requirements of the concerned application. Such architectures bring in the much-needed flexibility in network design and operation. Such architectures are perceived as the future of communication networks. This is a popular topic among researchers, and many countries are investing in the development of flexible network architectures that can evolve with changing technologies.

Description and selection of communication services for service oriented network architectures by Rahamatullah Khondoker is one such step in the ongoing research. This book is actually a dissertation of the work carried out as part of a project on service-oriented network architectures, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany. In his work, the author has concentrated on service description and service selection for service-oriented network architectures. The author discusses the challenges involved in the description of services and selection of appropriate services for different applications. Methods to overcome these challenges are designed and explained keeping in mind parameters such as application requirements, network constraints, and administrator policies, to name a few.

The book comprises six chapters. The first chapter presents the problem statement, research methodology, contribution scope, and outline of the thesis. The second chapter is a survey of work carried out in the area of service-oriented network architectures. The third chapter concentrates on challenges and solutions for service description, while the fourth chapter discusses issues and solutions for service selection. The fifth chapter concludes the work, and the sixth chapter discusses the benefits of this work and its scope in the future.

Service-oriented networks are the future of communication networks. This book highlights some of the important challenges in this area, including possible solutions. One downside of this book is its print quality and small font size. These nontechnical flaws aside, I recommend this book to people working toward next-generation network architectures.