FDDI performance at 1 Gbit/s

The 100 Mb/s fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) is emerging as the preeminent high-speed LAN. Future applications will require an even higher speed LAN (e.g., 600 Mb/s or 1 Gb/s) to act as a backbone between FDDI rings. The feasibility of extending the medium access control (MAC) protocol of FDDI to higher speeds is examined. The throughput efficiency as well as the delay and fairness properties of the FDDI access protocol are also examined. Both symmetric and asymmetric traffic patterns are considered, and a stability condition is derived for the asymmetric traffic pattern case. The majority of the results presented are applicable to the FDDI MAC protocol independent of the transmission speed.<>