A Fault-Tolerant Network Protocol for Real-Time Communications

We present a network access protocol suitable for use in real-time applications. It features high throughput, bounded message delay, tolerance of failed nodes, automatic resynchronization when failed nodes are revived, deadlock avoidance, and high reliability. The protocol is ideally suited for a bus topology and fiber-optic media. Measured performance data is provided from an implementation of 45 nodes operating on a 10-Mbps fiber-optic bus.