MTR: a modified token ring protocol and its performance

Abstract

Devising efficient and high performance communication protocols for Computer networks is a challenging issue. This paper presents a new Modified Token Ring protocol (MTR) for token ring LANs. The idea behind proposing this protocol is to improve the performance of the Standard (Traditional) Token Ring protocol (STR). The advantage of the MTR protocol over the STR protocol is its capability of bypassing idle stations in the ring. This is achieved by utilizing two of the reserved bits in the Frame Status (FS) field. The utilized bits are called Transmission Reservation bits (TR-bits). The TR-bits operate as an implicit token while they are circulating around the ring with their associated packet. Our simulation experiments show that the MTR protocol has higher ring throughput and lower packet delay than that of the STR protocol. For high traffic conditions the MTR protocol has shortened the packet delay down to 45% as compared to the STR protocol. Throughput improvement provided by the MTR can reach about 6% as compared to the STR protocol. The MTR protocol is characterized by its fairness, simplicity and cost-effectiveness.