While we are all becoming familiar with the Internet, which uses the Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), more and more additions and changes emerge every year, including protocols that support multimedia, encryption, and other methods of secure data transfer. This book focuses on the design and implementation of these computer network information transfer protocols. Using the Internet as a running case study throughout the book, the authors introduce a formal notation for writing network protocols and organize their discussion around protocol functions. Table of Contents How to Specify Network Protocols. First Protocol Examples. Network Processes. More on Processes. Transmission Errors. Connections. Data Transfer and Multiplexing. Error Detection. Error Recovery. Flow Control. Maintaining Topology Information. The Abstraction of Perfect Channel. Routing. Switching. Congestion Control. The Abstraction of Virtual Neighborhood. Naming and Name Resolution. Security. Data Compression. Broadcast and Multicast. Application Structures. Applications. Ring Networks. Broadcast Networks. Protocol Layers and Hierarchies. Exercises. Bibliography. Indexes.