Book excerpt: The only complete source of information on IP switching and routing technologies A master at distilling complex need-to-know networking technologies into a clear, to-the-point narrative, proven author Stephen Thomas now tackles IP switching and routing--the backbone of all Internet communications. He presents all the relevant technologies in the context of real-world applications, offering concise explanations and over 150 illustrations that make complex topics easy to understand. An invaluable resource for network managers and service provider professionals, this book delivers complete coverage of routing technologies--distance vector, link state, and path vector--as well as the full roster of Internet standard routing protocols: Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). The text then documents advances that enable Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), including the MPLS architecture, its interaction with standards routing protocols, Constraint-Based Label Distribution Protocol (CR-LDP), and traffic engineering extensions to the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP-TE).