Life beyond linear topologies (MANs)

The performance of a particular two-connected mesh network, the Manhattan street network, is compared with that of the distributed queue dual bus (DQDB) network, which has been standardized by the IEEE 802.6 Committee for MANs. Both of these networks have the same number of links, and the nodes have the same number of transmitters and receivers. A description of the topology and the access protocols of both networks is included. There is also a comparison of the throughput that the networks can support and their ability to adapt to fluctuating traffic patterns. The network reliability is investigated, both for degradations in throughput and loss in connectivity. The results are presented.<
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