Summers provides what is probably the most comprehensive technical coverage of all aspects of ISDN (including broadband ISDN) that could be had in 400 pages, short of reading the protocol standards themselves. This book is much more readable than the standards documents, and it provides extensive rationale and implementation guidelines that are not in the standards. Both hardware and software topics are covered, including a chapter on protocol state machine design. Anyone about to become involved in ISDN technology, especially designers and implementors of equipment, will benefit from this book, and even experienced engineers can probably use it as a reference for areas slightly outside their specialty.

Unlike many books on this topic, this one focuses on technical topics and has little material on management, politics, or history. Little space is wasted on topics not of interest to engineers.

Unfortunately, the statement on the back cover is completely misleading: “an easy-to-understand treatment…[for the] telecommunications manager…without excessively detailed standards and protocol data.” The implementor this book addresses is the designer of the equipment, not the user or the telecommunications manager. The book is slow and tedious reading, and it includes considerably more detail than any telecommunications manager needs. Most of the book is devoted to describing the protocols, and there is hardly a paragraph that does not name several standards. Also, there is no guidance for installing ISDN at a site--information that a telecommunications manager would need. I could not find any “helpful advice on how to facilitate ISDN in today’s competitive U.S. marketplace.” Did the writer of the cover blurb read the book?

My only complaint about the book itself is about the typography: the section headings use a font that is almost identical to the subsection headings. Combined with the lack of section numbers, this makes the organization of a chapter difficult to follow.

The above flaws should not significantly harm this work as a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any ISDN engineer.