Stallings has certainly earned his reputation as an authority in the general areas of data communication and networking. Unlike many new editions of traditional textbooks, this book is a true revision, with the appropriate addition of new technology concepts as well as updated recommendations, specifications, and protocols.

The purpose of the book is to provide a technical overview of the protocols and user-visible architecture of ISDN and broadband ISDN, including the details of frame relay and ATM. The book is divided into five somewhat independent parts. Depending upon the reader’s interests and background, parts can be mixed and matched. This approach would allow a university course to be developed to match the needs and backgrounds of the students. As in all of Stallings’s books, each chapter ends with a section of recommended readings and a set of problems of varying degrees of difficulty, making it suitable for an upper-level graduate text. Other audiences that this mix-and-match format would appeal to would include professionals in data processing; data communications designers and implementors; and networking customers and managers.

Chapter 1 is an introduction. Part 1, “Digital Communications Fundamentals,” consists of chapter 2, “Digital Transmission,” and chapter 3, “Communication Networks.” Part2, “Integrated Services Digital Networks,” contains seven chapters: chapter 4, “ISDN Overview,” chapter 5, “ISDN Interfaces and Functions,” chapter 6, “ISDN Physical Layer,” chapter 7, “ISDN Data Link Layer,” chapter 8, “ISDN Network Layer,” chapter 9, “ISDN Services,” and chapter 10, “Signaling System Number 7.” Part 3, “Frame Relay,” is divided into chapter 11, “Frame Relay Protocols and Service,” and chapter 12, “Frame Relay Congestion Control.” Part4, “Broadband ISDN,” consists of chapter 13, “Broadband ISDN Architectures,” and chapter 14, “Broadband ISDN Protocols.” Part 5, “Asynchronous Transfer Mode,” contains chapter 15, “ATM Protocols,” and chapter 16, “ATM Traffic and Congestion Control.” There are two appendices: “Flow Control, Error Detection, and Error Control” and “The OSI Reference Model.”

This book is well written and, more important, it matches the current emphasis of the data communication industry. The addition of frame relay concepts is a strength. Another strength is the in-depth treatment of ATM as it applies to broadband ISDN; local and wide area networks; and communication of data, voice, and video. The book is worth considering as a text for the computing professional’s library.