Book excerpt: The fifth edition of Behrouz Forouzan's Data Communications and Networking presents a comprehensive and accessible approach to data communications and networking that has made this book a favorite with students and professionals alike. More than 830 figures and 150 tables accompany the text and provide a visual and intuitive opportunity for understanding the material. This unique approach minimizes the need for heavy math content, allowing normally complicated topics to unfold graphically and visually rather than through the presentation of complex formulas.The global edition has been developed specifically to meet the needs of international computer networks students. In addition to a chapter on the peer-to-peer paradigm, a full chapter on quality of service (QoS), generous coverage of forward error correction, coverage of WiMAX, and material on socket-interface programming in Java, we have added new international end-of-chapter questions and problems to make the content more relevant and improve learning outcomes for the international student.