The Internet of today is nothing like the 4-layer theory (the "DoD model") that many of us will have learned about. When looking at the "real thing", it's easy to just understand it as a much messier system, with no clear rules and no underlying theory.

This book changes all of that. It introduces a model that, cleanly and precisely, describes the *real* Internet - which has very interesting ramifications for people that try to understand it better or do research on protocol verification, but it also (more importantly!) turns this into an ideal textbook for people who just need an introduction to the Internet, in general.

I just wish that book would have been available when I was a student and started out in this field. Students today should begin with this.

Michael Welzl, review on Barnes & Noble