RATO-net: a random-access protocol for unidirectional ultra-high-speed optical fiber network

Abstract

The local network medium is a pair of unidirectional fiber optic buses to which stations are connected via passive taps. For this configuration, a random-access protocol called RATO (random-access time-out) is presented. RATO provides random access, fairness, and bounded delay access to all stations, and is particularly suited for ultra-high-speed transmission when the performance of the popular Ethernet becomes unattractive. Simplicity and ease of hardware implementation of RATO under ultra-high-speed environment is emphasized because the only control requirements are the sensing of activity in the bus and a fixed time delay between consecutive transmissions from the same station. Results of simulation and performance comparisons of RATO with other schemes are given. In ultra-high-speed wide-area networks, RATO outperforms all these other schemes. >