High-Speed Slotted Ring Access Mechanism with Dynamically Adaptive Slot Sizes

摘要

Two access methods for Local Area Networks (LANs), the slotted and the token ringare analyzed with focus on differences in performance. Transfer delay has become a concern in the performance of LANs and High Speed LANs (HSLANs) since there is uncertainty about the characteristics and the mix of future (broadband) traffic and it is important to search for networks which can adapt to the traffic characteristics. The basic concepts of a network called Universal Channels Network (UCN), which is aimed at HSLANs and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) are introduced. This network is argued to combine the advantages of the slotted and the token ring, by making the mechanism that causes the difference in performance adaptive. A useful feature of UCN, the transmission interrupt mechanism, which assures that the performance is not only good for a single application to which the network parameters are adapted, but also for a mix of applications is described. Conclusions and open issues on UCN are given.