Computer Networks: A Systems Approach is an open-source textbook that teaches computer networking through a systems perspective.
The book addresses the need for accessible, up-to-date material on computer networks by making the content of Peterson and Davie's textbook freely available under a Creative Commons license. Rather than remaining a static published work, it operates as a living document where the community can contribute corrections, improvements, and new material to keep pace with how the Internet evolves. The approach treats networking as an integrated system rather than isolated layers, helping readers understand how components interact.
The textbook suits anyone teaching or learning computer networks who wants material grounded in systems thinking rather than protocol memorization. It works well for university courses, self-study, and as a reference for practitioners. The project welcomes derivative works such as translations, and the maintainers are open to discussing such efforts. The online version at the project's homepage is continuously updated from the main development branch, while tagged releases occur roughly quarterly to provide stable snapshots for classroom use.
The project maintains master as a coherent, internally consistent version where new content is developed on branches before merging. The web publication pipeline automatically generates the online textbook from the master branch following each update. The team explicitly commits to human authorship rather than AI-generated content.
