Internetworking with TCP-IP, Volume I Principles, Protocols and Architecture

Foreword To The First Edition  By The Late Jon Postel (one themost influential member of IETF)
In this book Professor Douglas Comer has provided a long soughtoverview and introduction to TCP/IP. There have been manyrequests for "the" article, report, orbook to read to get startedon understanding the TCP/IP protocols. At last, this book satisfiesthose requests. Writing an introduction to TCP/IP for the uninitiatedis a very difficult task. While combining the explanation of thegeneral principles of computer communication with the specificexamples from the TCP/IP protocol suite, Doug Comer has provideda very readable book.
While this book is specifically about the TCP protocol suite, it is agood book for learning about computer communications protocolsin general. The principles of architecture, layering, multiplexing,encapsulation, addressing and address mapping, routing, and namingare quite similar in any protocol suite, though, of course, differentin detail (See Chapters 3, 10, 17, and 18)t. Computer communicationprotocols do not do anything themselves. Like operating systems,they are in the service of applications processes. Processes are theactive elements that request communication and are the ultimatesenders and receivers of the data transmitted. The various layersof protocols are like the various layers in a computer operatingsystem, especially the file system.
Understanding protocol architecture is like understanding operatingsystem architecture. In this book Doug Comer has taken the "bottom up"approach - starting with the physical networks and moving up in levelsof abstraction to the applications.