The primary objective of this book is to teach the architectures, design principles, and troubleshooting techniques of a LAN. This will be imparted through the presentation of a broad scope of data and computer communication standards, real-world inter-networking techniques, architectures, hardware, software, protocols, technologies and services as they relate to the design, implementation and troubleshooting of a LAN. The logical and physical design of hardware and software is not the only process involved in the design and implementation of a LAN. The latter also encompasses many other aspects including making the business case, compiling the requirements, choosing the technology, planning for capacity, selecting the vendor, and weighing all the issues before the actual design begins.

This book teaches the architectures, design principles, and troubleshooting techniques of a LAN, imparted via the presentation of a broad scope of data and computer communication standards, real-world inter-networking techniques, architectures, hardware, software, protocols, technologies and services as they relate to the design, implementation and troubleshooting of such a network.