Business Data Communications ^{5th Ed.}

In this highly successful book, award-winning and best-selling author William Stallings provides an in-depth treatment of the fundamentals of data communications essential to business and information management. This book is designed to address the needs of business data communication courses or serve as a tutorial and reference for IT professionals and business managers. Dr. Stallings provides a thorough treatment of the key issues and technologies including wireless LANs and WANs, Web and Internet protocols, Quality of Service (QoS), intranets and extranets. With numerous real-world case studies and clear illustrations, students and professionals are offered a practical understanding of business information and data communications in this authoritative and up-to-date text.

• Chapter 1: Introduction
1. Information and Communication
2. Data Communications and Networking for Today's Enterprise
3. The Nature of Business Information Requirements
4. Distributed Data Processing
5. The Internet and Distributed Applications
6. Networks
7. The Transmission of Information
8. Management Issues
9. Standards
10. Internet Resources
11. Useful Publications
12. Review Questions
• Appendix 1A: Prefixes for Numerical Units
• Part One. Requirements
• Chapter 2: Business Information
1. Audio
2. Data
3. Image
4. Video
5. Performance Measures
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Chapter 3: Distributed Data Processing
1. Centralized versus Distributed Processing
2. Forms of Distributed Data Processing
3. Distributed Data
4. Networking Implications of DDP
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study I: MasterCard International
  
• Part Two: The Internet and Distributed Applications
• Chapter 4: Internet History and Architecture
1. Internet History
2. Internet Architecture
3. Internet Domains
4. Summary
5. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
6. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Chapter 5: TCP/IP and OSI
1. A Simple Protocol Architecture
2. The TCP/IP Protocol Architecture
3. Internetworking
4. TCP and IP Details
5. The OSI Protocol Architecture
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Appendix 5A: The Trivial File Transfer Protocol
• Case Study II: Florida Department of Management Services
  
• Chapter 6: Internet-Based Applications
1. Electronic Mail and SMTP
2. Web Access and HTTP
3. Internet Telephony and SIP
4. Summary
5. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
6. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Chapter 7: Client-Server and Intranet Computing
1. The Growth of Client/Server Computing
2. Client/Server Applications
3. Middleware
4. Intranets
5. Extranets
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study III: ING Life
  
• Chapter 8: Internet Operation
1. Internet Addressing
2. Internet Routing Protocols
3. The Need for Speed and Quality of Service
4. Differentiated Services
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Part Three: Local Area Networks
• Chapter 9: LAN Architecture and Protocols
1. Background
2. LAN Configuration
3. Guided Transmission Media
4. LAN Protocol Architecture
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Appendix 9A: Decibels and Signal Strength
• Chapter 10: Ethernet and Fibre Channel
1. The Emergence of High-Speed LANs
2. Traditional Ethernet
3. Bridges, Hubs, and Switches
4. High-Speed Ethernet
5. Fibre-Channel
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study IV: Carlson Companies
  
• Chapter 11: Wireless LANs
1. Overview
2. IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Standard
3. Bluetooth
4. Summary
5. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
6. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study V: St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
  
• Part Four: Wide Area Networks
• Chapter 12: Circuit Switching and Packet Switching
1. Switching Techniques
2. Circuit-Switching Networks
3. Packet-Switching Networks
4. Traditional Wide Area Network Alternatives
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study VI: Statenn Island University Hospital
  
• Chapter 13: Frame Relay and ATM
1. Wide Area Networking Alternatives
2. Frame Relay
3. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
4. Summary
5. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
6. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study VII: Olsen Staffing Services
• Case Study VIII: Guardian life Insurance
  
• Chapter 14: Wireless WANs
1. Cellular Wireless Networks
2. Multiple Access
3. Third-Generation Wireless Communication
4. Satellite Communications
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study IX: Choice Hotels International
  
• Part Five: Data Communications
• Chapter 15:Data Transmission
1. Signals for Conveying Information
2. Transmission Impairments and Channel Capacity
3. Summary
4. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
5. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Chapter 16: Data Communication Fundamentals
1. Analog and Digital Data Communications
2. Data Encoding Techniques
3. Asynchronous and Synchronous Transmission
4. Error Detection
5. Summary
6. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
7. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Chapter 17: Data Link Control and Multiplexing
1. Flow Control and Error Control
2. High-Level Data Link Control
3. Motivation for Multiplexing
4. Frequency Division Multiplexing
5. Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study X: Haukeland University Hospital
  
• Part Six: Management Issues
• Chapter 18: Network Security
1. Security Requirements and Attacks
2. Confidentiality with Symmetric Encryption
3. Message Authentication and Hash Functions
4. Public-Key Encryption and Digital Signatures
5. Virtual Private Networks and IPSec
6. Summary
7. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
8. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems
• Case Study XI: The Hacker in All of Us
  
• Chapter 19: Network Management
1. Network Management Requirements
2. Network Management Systems
3. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
4. Recommended Reading and Web Sites
5. Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems

This is really a good introduction book to the more advanced topics of networking. No surprise there, considering the author.

But, it has absolutely nothing to do with business, the title notwithstanding, so it is a real disappointment. No connection to business demands, business plans, the strategical use of IT etc, are even hinted at.

Avoid it.