Your comment is emblematic of the silliness prevalent on HN when it comes to studying from textbooks. Publishing date has nothing to do with core concepts in an

Your comment is emblematic of the silliness prevalent on HN when it comes to studying from textbooks. Publishing date has nothing to do with core concepts in any field. Only pedagogy with an eye to clarity and appeal to intuition matters. All newer concepts are built over existing fundamental layers which is what one should study first. My recommendation (i have substantial experience in the area of network protocols and programming) is excellent in that regard; the only one that i know of which deals with different types of networks and the applicable theory (eg. queuing, scheduling, flow control etc.) for each.