This book is ideal for University applications/student use as well as for Systems Engineers (I am one) and (I'd venture to guess) even CTOs as well! It covers the latest standards as well as those currently evolving. My class at UCLA used it as a textbook a couple years back and since graduation in '07 it sits on my desk as a handy resource in the real world. I refer to it at least weekly when I'm in a bind or want to know more about a particular technology.
The previous reviewer must obviously have personal issues with the author or the publishing company - it's not legitimate as this is a well-written, easy to read, and I've found, accurate text.

Replete with errors, makes claims that are not accurate. The book is poorly organized and explains concepts in an elliptical fashion. Makes you wonder, the book has three authors all of whomoverstate their credentials. Ellis is suposedly an expert in Lotus, where did her expertise with Convergence come in. The other authors have physical layer network transport experience but are far from the nexus of what is happening in convergence. my major regret is that my students will have to pay $60 or more dollars for yet another trash book that somehow succeeded in passing muster through this publisher. Shameon Academic Press. Would you please grant any of my students that desire, a refund? Finally, my text published in 2002 Converging Technology Networks for Business covers all the options for converging an organization's network from a vendor neutral perspective. Did you steal this lineout of my book or my prospectus? But do not wory I will not sue for this alone. I understnad that the authors here lack experiecne and accreditation and I forgive them. You guys may want to consider dr merging with Thompson / Course Tec, they seem to have the academic market on similary published books that rarely do well in the marketplace. My Bits & Bytes book of 1998 sold more copies than this book. (N=924). If this system had an option for zero stars, I would gie this book a big fat zero. I fyouwould like to talk wiht me about it please call 412-559-6979.