Handbook of Computer-Communications Standards 1. [antikvár]

Preface In the early 1970s, networks that interconnected computers and terminals began to appear. The primary motivations were to share expensive computing resources and minimize data transmission costs. Since that time, the rapid proliferation of minicomputers and personal computers has increased the demand for data communications between computers, between terminals, and between terminal and computer. The generic name for these capabilities is computer communications. Such communication is accomplished by means of protocols. Typically, the task is too complex to be accomplished with a single protocol. Rather, a structured set of protocols, forming a communications architecture, is used. In recent years, there has been an explosion of activity in the design of standards for computer-communications protocols and the implementation of these protocols. Since the introduction of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, all of the standards work, and most of the development of protocols, has been in the context of that hierarchical, seven-layer, communications architecture. OBJECTIVES This book is one of a series of books that provides a comprehensive treatment of computer-communications standards, presented within the framework of the OSI model. The series systematically covers all major standards topics, providing the introductory and tutorial text missing from the actual standards. The books function as a primary reference for those who need an understanding of the technology, implementation, design, and application issues that relate to the standards. The books also function as companions to the standards documents for those who need to understand the standards for implementation purposes. xi