BKBNABCM.RVW 940426 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 or 22 Worchester Road Rexdale, Ontario M9W 9Z9 800-263-1590 800-567-4797 fax: 800-565-6802 or 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 USA 800-CALL-WILEY 212-850-6630 Fax: 212-850-6799 Fax: 908-302-2300 jdemarra@jwiley.com aponnamm@jwiley.com "Broadband Networking ABCs for Managers", Davidson, 1994, 0-471-61954-X, U$29.95 With the continuing development of new computer and communications technologies, and the increasing rate of such development, it is difficult for professionals in the field to keep up, let alone managers and executives who must make the final decisions. This book is a welcome resume of some of the "hot" new data communications methods and standards. Chapters one to three are primarily concerned with the factors driving increased communications needs; more desktop power, group work, multimedia, mobile computing, and telecommuting of various types; and the benefits of improved networking. Chapters four and five give basic background information on LAN technologies, dealing, respectively, with local and internetworking functions. It is chapters six to eight that give hard information on the new technologies, such as frame relays, call relay, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), and SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork). Data professionals will grasp explanations readily, seeing ATM, for example, as a form of "slotted ring" networking. Unfortunately, the material of the first five chapters is not a sufficient background to understand the technical implications of this central text. Managers and executives, unless former techies themselves, are not likely to understand the concepts without further help. The book continues with a more conceptual discussion of the internetworking of the technologies, in chapter nine, and a fairly terse glance at planning, in chapter ten. For those charged with communications planning for medium- to large-sized organizations, this book is a valuable reference to have on the technical planning bookshelf. Even if you cannot give it to the denizens of executive country, it will give you a clearer picture when you are called in to help them decide on these bright new communications buzzw^H^H^H^H^H technologies. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKBNABCM.RVW 940426