There is currently much interest in alternative architectures and networks for the provision of Integrated Services. A project at the University Computer Laboratory has been investigating Integrated Service provision in a local area context using a slotted ring: the scope of this work ranges widely from protocol design for simultaneous transport of voice, data and images to user level Integrated Service facilities, e.g. multimedia editors and image manipulation.This paper addresses the lowest level - simultaneous transmission of voice and data on one network. In particular, since our network is packet based whereas traditional voice-carrying networks have been circuit switched, it considers the design of protocols for packet voice to produce delays no greater than those in current circuit switched PABXs . a capability without which packet systems simply are not practical for general use.Our work on packet-based protocols has been fuelled by the fact that commonly accepted telecom-munications approaches to voice/data transport are based on assumptions, from some time ago, that bandwidth is expensive and that its usage must be maximisod and optimised. These assumptions are no longer true within current local area network technology.
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