🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi there,

This is the summary of the answers I've received after my post for
OSI books.
Marcus, If you think it should be in the faq, you are very welcome to
add it.
For the various feedback I'd like to thanks especially:
- pla_kbh@pki-nbg.philips.de (Kurt Behnke (TEAM SOS))
- jdale@tango.cos.com
- Petri: Petri.Riihikallio@hut.fi (k32116h@puukko.hut.fi)
- Amar: arsikere@iastate.edu (couldn't get back to you, your mail 
			      bounced)
- Laurence Duchien: duchien@cnam.cnam.fr
- Bach Hoang: bach@ws042.torreypinesca.ncr.com
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What I understood from your mails is that I have no or little chance
to find a good and "cheap" OSI book. In the following are the books
you've recommended to me and after are books I've heard about and
would like to know your comments on them.
=========================begin========================================
Recommended Books:
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* M. T. Rose: The Open Book, A practical perspective on OSI
	    Prentice Hall.

It is fun reading, and it gives you the general idea about the whole
stuff.
One of its most interesting topics is transition: how to migrate to 
OSI from a TCP/IP oriented world.
Excellent, but not cheap. In Germany it is 150,-- DM.

I started with Marshall T. Rose's The Open Book - a practical 
perspective on OSI by Prentice-Hall. It came out in 1991 so it is
quite up to data, but not cheap (at least in Finland).

Its not a exclusive book on the upper layers of the OSI.  Nevertheles,
his presentation of the upper layers in a couple of chapters is 
sufficient enough to start.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* OSI EXPLAINED: End-to-End Computer Communicaions Standards,
                 Second Edition, John Henshall and Sandy Shaw,
                 by Ellis Horwood, England, ISBN 0-13-639451-5.

Very good on transport and above, including a consolidation
by 3 examples that shows how the upper layers work together
to extablish an association, transfer data, and release it.
It also has a chapter each on FTAM, X.400, and X.500, but does
very little with ASN.1, a real weakness in an otherwise
excellent book.  Its other virtue: it is under 250 pages.

Excellent
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* ISODE 

The ISODE  manual is a nice reference material if you are looking for
implementation details of the upper layers.

Another good place to look is the ISODE 8.0 package available from the
anonymous ftp sites. I know of many sites in France, one being 
XXX.inria.fr.
In fact, looking at ISODE code is probably the best way to see how the
"theoritical" stuff applied.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* Teleinformatique by Nussbaumer, published by Presses polytechniques
  romandes (french version)

The vol 3&4 are the best books available in french for the upper
layers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* Computer Networks by Tannenbaum

This book explains accurately the general aspects of problems
up-to layer 6. Layer 7's description is a bit vague
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* William Stallings "Handbook of Computer Communications Standards,
		Volume 1, 2nd Edition"

This book is OK, but lacks the finer details.
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Warning:

There are a lot of "trashy" OSI books too, which only covers 
the "general" concepts
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Books I've heard about:

* The basics book of OSI and network management
  by Motorola Codex, 1992, 96 pp!

* The basics book of X.25 packet switching
  by Motorola Codex, 1992, 80 pp, $13.75!

Both are available at Addison-Weisley

* X25 and related protocols by Uyless Black, 1991, 304pp,
  IEEE Computer Society Press. ISBN 0-8186-8976-5.
  Member $45, List $70.
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