INFONET project: a flexible MAN architecture for very high throughput ATM communications

The authors discuss INFONET II, a LAN/MAN (local/metropolitan area network) optical fiber architecture conceived to integrate the isochronous and nonisochronous traffic handling in an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) environment. They present a new access protocol for nonisochronous traffic which has the goal of improving the throughput/delay performances of the early version of Infonet. The main issues addressed are the network structure, the arrangement of the physical interface of the network stations, the MAC procedure, and the overload control mechanism. A case study is considered to evaluate the network's performance.<
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