802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging Design and Evolution: The Architect's Perspective (Paperback)

Shortest Path Bridging is the most recent of this series of evolutionary steps, and is arguably one of the 3 or 4 most significant enhancements in Ethernet's history. Until SPB, Ethernet had retained its original control mechanisms, and these are now distinctly behind the state of the art in their properties. SPB refreshes this component of Ethernet, by taking the existing data path technology practically unaltered, and marrying it to a significant extension of the state of the art in distributed control planes, link state routing.

The book both explains both the "what" and the "why" of the standard. The intent is to provide a sense of the relative simplicity of 802.1aq, in terms of the small number of moving parts required to achieve what it does, and why those choices were made. It goes into what were elective decisions and what decisions were dictated by the design goals. It does this by using a multipart approach to the book. The first is a "what it is" description, intended to provide an overview of SPB. The second is separated out, and uses a narrative form to describe the design process and decisions that led to SPB, in order to provide further context in understanding the first part. The book is rounded out with applications and potential futures for the technology to suggest where it could go.

最短路徑橋接（Shortest Path Bridging，簡稱SPB）是這一系列演進步驟中最新的，可以說是乙太網路歷史上最重要的3或4個改進之一。在SPB之前，乙太網路保留了其原始的控制機制，但這些機制在性能方面已明顯落後於最新技術。SPB通過將現有的數據路徑技術幾乎不變地應用，並將其與分散式控制平面和鏈路狀態路由等最新技術相結合，從而更新了乙太網路的這一組件。

本書旨在解釋標準的「什麼」和「為什麼」。目的是讓讀者對802.1aq的相對簡單性有所了解，即實現所需功能所需的少量移動部件，以及為何做出這些選擇。本書通過多部分的方式來進行。第一部分是對SPB的概述，旨在提供對SPB的概觀。第二部分則以敘述形式描述了導致SPB的設計過程和決策，以進一步了解第一部分的內容。本書還介紹了應用和技術的潛在未來，以展示其可能的發展方向。