Comm Netowrks A First Course (The Aksen Associates series in electrical and computer engineering)

This is a very good book. It strives to give students of networking a broad view of modern communications, along with the elements of networks. As it also strives to pack all this into 336 pages, it can be fairly "to-the-point" at certain places. But intelligent readers can fill in the gaps. The book is not designed to convey the details of say, transport control but the basics, the most essential points. It succeeds to some extent on that front.