This paper is concerned with optimal communication network-based H∞ quantized control for a discrete-time neural network with distributed time delay. Control of the neural network (plant) is implemented via a communication network. Both quantization and communication network-induced data packet dropouts are considered simultaneously. It is assumed that the plant state signal is quantized by a logarithmic quantizer before transmission, and communication network-induced packet dropouts can be described by a Bernoulli distributed white sequence. A new approach is developed such that controller design can be reduced to the feasibility of linear matrix inequalities, and a desired optimal control gain can be derived in an explicit expression. It is worth pointing out that some new techniques based on a new sector-like expression of quantization errors, and the singular value decomposition of a matrix are developed and employed in the derivation of main results. An illustrative example is presented to show the effectiveness of the obtained results.