Guaranteed quality of service for multimedia applications over a priority-oriented token-passing bus local area network

Supporting multimedia applications with guaranteed quality of service over a token-passing bus local area network (LAN) is explored through extensive computer simulations. As the provision of real-time properties over a LAN is not so easy to assure, we introduce two levels of priority mechanisms to privileged stream-oriented traffic over burst traffic. One priority level is imposed over the (logical-ring) bus while the other is applied inside the station. In addition, we suggest two algorithms of token utilization; namely, the limited and exhaustive disciplines. The performance of the network is investigated under different operating scenarios. The effect of system parameters on the network performance is discussed and compared. The obtained results show that the token-passing bus LAN with the right compromise is effectively capable of delivering multimedia services without violating their service quality constraints. This will herald a new generation of electronic offices and factory automation.