A functional and performance comparison of NETBIOS and APPC/PC

The purpose of this study was to gather empirical performance data in order to help design and develop distributed systems. In particular, the authors were interested in peer-to-peer processing capabilities in support of such applications as real-time control and transaction processing services. They evaluated the processing to perform these capabilities, the complexity in interfacing to the protocol, and parameters such as buffer sizes which impact performance. The basic approach taken in the study was to develop a network testbed and perform a series of benchmarks on the protocols. The IEEE 802.5 token ring local area network (LAN) was chosen for the testbed. An overview and functional comparison of the two protocols are presented. The complexity of the software required to interface an application to these communications protocols is described and evaluated. The performance tests are described and their results are interpreted. The results provide an understanding of the services provided by these protocols, the software complexity of interfacing them, and quantitative measures of their performance.<>