Broad Coverage of Key Concepts and Principles, Presented in a Technology-independent Fashion Drawing on more than 30 years’ experience at the leading edge of networking research and implementation, Comer focuses on imparting knowledge that students will need regardless of which technologies emerge or become obsolete. Every chapter includes hands-on exercises and projects that offer opportunities for students to test their knowledge and gain confidence in their abilities.  Flexible Organisation that Supports both Top-down and Bottom-up Teaching Approaches The text is organised into five parts. Chapters may be sequenced in multiple orders to accommodate a wide variety of instructor/student/course needs and preferences. This text combines the best of top-down and bottom-up approaches. When presented in order, the book exposes students to applications and allows them to write network programs early, while delivering all material in logical order so a reader understands how each new technology builds on lower layer technologies. An Accessible Presentation that Resonates with Students No sophisticated mathematics is required—instead of formal mathematical proofs, Comer presents highly accessible examples, figures, drawings, and analogies. The text answers the basic question: how do computer networks and Internets operate? It provides a comprehensive, self-contained tour through all of networking that describes applications, Internet protocols, network technologies, such as LANs and WANs, and low-level details, such as data transmission and wiring. It shows how protocols use the underlying hardware and how applications use the protocol stack to provide functionality for users. Keep Your Course Current In response to suggestions from readers and recent changes in networking, the new edition has been completely revised and updated. The significant changes include: NEW! Updates throughout each chapter NEW! Additional figures to enhance explanations NEW! Integration of IPv4 and IPv6 in all chapters NEW! Improved coverage of MPLS and tunneling NEW! New chapter on Software Defined Networking and OpenFlow NEW! New chapter on the Internet of Things and Zigbee