An availability comparison of three concentrator alternatives in afiber distributed data interface ring network

摘要

Several different alternatives are under consideration by the ANSIX3T9.5 committee for the implementation of a concentrator in a fiberdistributed data interface (FDDI) ring. The alternatives differ in thenumber of MAC (medium access control) chips present in the concentrator.The three alternatives are compared by evaluating the availability ofsimple networks constructed with concentrators of each type. Theanalysis considers the variations in the failure rates introduced by thedifferent alternatives as well as variations in other parameters such asrepair times and coverage factors