Books to Read if you are pursuing a CCIE

Here's a list of books that I would recommend if you were pursuing your CCIE. These are all books that I own and that I used extensively in my preparations. I left out the books that I own which I believe are of low value. In particular, I have several "all-encompassing" books which claim to be a one-stop-shop as a CCIE reference. I have never been satisfied with any of those books and would recommend against purchasing any of those type books.

On the other hand, I recommend the following "more specific" books that will help prepare you for the CCIE. Some are general, non-vendor specific whereas others rely on the Cisco command line.

Tanenbaum's Computer Networks

This is an excellent book about the theory behind computer networks. It covers many different types of networks as well as history. The book focuses more on theory rather than application, but is an excellent resource. I highly recommend this book.

Perlman, Interconnections

This is one of the premier books on routing and switching. It's been quite a long time since I read this book but it provides a great base for anyone wanting to figure out how routers and switches operate.

Keshav, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking

I found this book while browsing through Barnes and Noble one day. It provides significant insight into the physical layer, including signaling, buffering, and transmission characteristics. In addition, it covers both data and phone networks.

Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1

This was probably the first (useful) networking book I ever owned. This book is how I learned networking. It has probably the most in-depth technical discussion of how TCP/IP works that I've ever found. It has a lot of examples that show the protocols in action. I'm not listing Vol 2 and Vol 3 here because I don't believe they contain as much useful information as Vol 1.

Halabi, Internet Routing Architectures

This book is about BGP, and it is widely considered the bible on BGP. Once you live/learn/feel the information in this book, you will know BGP. Definitely a must-have for anyone involved in routing on the Internet!

Doyle, Routing TCP/IP, Vol 1.

This huge book basically covers all of the interior routing protocols in use today. Some of the information is Cisco-specific, but much of it talks about general protocol-related issues. This is definitely a must-have book for any network engineer.

Doyle, Routing TCP/IP, Vol 2.

Doyle continues his tradition with Volume 2. This volume contains excellent, detailed NAT information, multicasting, IPv6, and BGP information. The BGP information is an excellent supplement to the Internet Routing Architectures book and the multicast information supplements the Multicast book. The NAT and IPv6 information in this book is not found in any of the other references here and is very valuable information. This book is also a definite must-have.

Lee, Enhanced IP Services for Cisco Networks.

This book covers several topics which are “left out” in other books. The best coverage in this book is of IPSec and the IOS firewall feature set. The QOS material is a little lacking, but does provide a basic overview. Overall, I recommend the book if you need more information on Cisco's IPSec deployment or the IOS firewall feature set.

Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture.

The first time I read this book I wondered why I had never seen this book before. Although chapters may be a dated, it opens up the hood of IOS and shows the reader how packets flow within the router. It covers a wide array of different routers, from the Cisco 1600 to the GSR 12000 series router. Definitely a great book if you like figuring out how things work (which is a must if you troubleshoot!)

Clark & Hamilton, Cisco LAN Switching.

This is an excellent book on switching, covering VLANs, spanning-tree, trunking, and LANE all very well. As far as I can tell, there's no better switching book out on the market. However, it is beginning to look a little dated, as it was written in 1999 and doesn’t cover some of the recent spanning-tree enhancements like RSTP. However, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone studying for the CCIE.

Martley, IS-IS Network Design Solutions

Martley's book on IS-IS dives into a detailed description of IS-IS and provides more information than was found in Doyle's Routing TCP/IP book. Personally, I never had any experience with IS-IS in the field, so using these two books together (IS-IS combined with Routing) definitely helped out. I recommend this book to anyone who is weak with IS-IS.

Williamson, IP Multicast Networks.

Although this book overlaps with information in Doyle’s Routing TCP/IP book, the information in this book is much more comprehensive and in-depth. It's basically everything you ever wanted to know about PIM, and will probably be the best book on IP Multicasting you've ever read.

Other recommended books...

These books won't help you get your CCIE, but they're still good reading...

Schneier's Applied Cryptography

Another excellent book, this time on cryptography. This book did an excellent job in explaining how modern cryptographic systems operate. You don't have to have a background in number theory (I don't) to understand this book. This book gave me much needed insight into how different cryptographic schemes work, so that I could pick the proper ones for my applications.