Designing Large-Scale LANs

This book is a vendor-neutral guide to designing enterprise computer networks. It describes the guiding principles involved in putting together a stable, reliable, and manageable large-scale network. These principles are independent of any particular hardware vendor. A network designer who understands these principles can use a "best of breed" approach to selecting hardware. This in turn results in optimal network performance and lower costs. It also prevents an organization from being inextricable tied to a particular vendor when competing products become available.

Designing Large-Scale LANs contains:

• A discussion of network reliability and the factors that lead to a robust infrastructure, including the identification of single points of failure through statistical analysis
• A detailed discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the most successful network topologies
• Useful information about implementing standard network protocols (such as IP and IPX) and their dynamic routing protocoils (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, and NLSP)
• Several sections describing useful features such as DNS, DHCP, NAT, and VLAN implementations
• An analysis of the impact of design considerations on network manageability
• An assessment of related design considerations, inclduing IP Multicast, IPv6, and LAN security
• An appendix for calculating failure rates in complex networks, as well as a glossary of the concepts used throughout the book

Designing Large-Scale LANs offers the network designer a hands-on guide to building a reliable, efficient, and logical network.

1. Networking Objectives
• Business Requirements
• OSI Protocol Stack Model
• Routing Versus Bridging
• Top-Down Design Philosophy
2. Elements of Reliability
• Defining Reliability
• Redundancy
• Failure Modes
3. Design Types
• Basic Topologies
• Reliability Mechanisms
• VLANs
• Toward Larger Topologies
• Hierarchical Design
• Implementing Reliability
• Large-Scale LAN Topologies
4. Local Area Network Topologies
• Selecting Appropriate LAN Technology
• Ethernet and Fast Ethernet
• Token Ring
• Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• ATM
• FDDI
• Wireless
• Firewalls and Gateways
• Structured Cabling
5. IP
• IP-Addressing Basics
• IP-Address Classes
• ARP and ICMP
• Network Address Translation
• Multiple Subnet Broadcast
• General IP Design Strategies
• DNS and DHCP
6. IP Dynamic Routing
• Static Routing
• Types of Dynamic Routing Protocols
• RIP
• IGRP and EIGRP
• OSPF
• BGP
7. IPX
• Dynamic Routing
• General IPX Design Strategies
8. Elements of Efficiency
• Using Eqiupment Features Effectively
• Hop Counts
• MTU Throughout the Network
• Bottlenecks and Congestion
• Filtering
• Quality of Service and Traffic Sharing
9. Network Management
• Network-Management Components
• Designinmg a Manageable Network
• SNMP
• Managemement Problems
10. Special Topics
• IP Multicast Networks
• IPv6
• Security

• Appendix: Combining Probabilities

It doesn't give very much advice, but is an excellent overview of what has to be addressed.