In designing a network device, you make dozens of decisions that affect the speed with which it will perform — sometimes for better, but sometimes for worse. Network Algorithmics provides a complete, coherent methodology for maximizing speed while meeting your other design goals.

Author George Varghese begins by laying out the implementation bottlenecks that are most often encountered at four disparate levels of implementation: protocol, OS, hardware, and architecture. He then derives 15 solid principles — ranging from the commonly recognized to the groundbreaking — that are key to breaking these bottlenecks.

The rest of the book is devoted to a systematic application of these principles to bottlenecks found specifically in endnodes, interconnect devices, and specialty functions such as security and measurement that can be located anywhere along the network. This immensely practical, clearly presented information will benefit anyone involved with network implementation, as well as students who have made this work their goal.