Local And Metropolitan Area Networks

Like its predecessors, this fully updated Fifth Edition of Local and Metropolitan Area Networks provides a clear, comprehensive presentation of LAN/MAN technology and the many emerging approaches to high-speed local networking. It meets the needs of today's students by emphasizing both the fundamental principles as well as the critical role of performance in driving LAN/MAN design.

The main objective of this workshop was to review and discuss the state of the art and the latest advances· in the area of 1-10 Gbit/s throughput for local and metropolitan area networks. The first generation of local area networks had throughputs in the range 1-20 Mbit/s. Well-known examples of this first generation networks are the Ethernet and the Token Ring. The second generation of networks allowed throughputs in the range 100-200 Mbit/s. Representatives of this generation are the FDDI double ring and the DQDB (IEEE 802.6) networks. The third generation networks will have throughputs in the range 1-10 Gbit/s. The rapid development and deployment of fiber optics worldwide, as well as the projected emergence of a market for broadband services, have given rise to the development of broadband ISDN standards. Currently, the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) appears to be a viable solution to broadband networks. The possibility of all-optical networks in the future is being examined. This would allow the tapping of approximately 50 terahertz or so available in the lightwave range of the frequency spectrum. It is envisaged that using such a high-speed network it will be feasible to distribute high-quality video to the home, to carry out rapid retrieval of radiological and other scientific images, and to enable multi-media conferencing between various parties.

This document provides an overview to the family of IEEE 802 Standards, defines compliance with the family of IEEE 802 Standards, describes the relationship of the IEEE 802 Standards to the Open Systems Interconnections Basic Reference Model (ISO 7498:1984) and explains the relationship of these standards to the higher layer protocols, and provides a standard for identification of public, private, and standard protocols.

A tutorial providing a comprehensive introduction to LAN and MAN technology and standards, combining original material and reprinted articles in the following organization: local area networks, metropolitan area networks, the network interface, LAN and MAN performance, internetworking, glossary, lis

With the continuing success of Local Area Networks (IANs), there is an increasing demand to extend their capabilities towards higher data rates and wider areas. This, together with the progress in fiber-optic technology, has given rise to the so-called Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). MANs can span much greater distances than current LAN s, and offer data rates on the order of hundreds of Megabits/sec (Mbps). The success of MANs is mainly due to the opportunity they provide to develop new networking products capable of providing high-speed commu nications between applications at competitive prices, which nonetheless give an adequate return on the manufacturers' investments. A major factor in of appropriate networking standards. achieving this goal is the availability Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDl) and Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) are the two standard technologies for MANs for which industrial products are already available. For this reason, this book focuses mainly on these two standards. Nowadays there are several books dealing with MANs, and these look mainly at FDDI (e.g., [2], [92], [118], [141]). These books focus primarily on the architectures and protocols, whereas they pay little attention to per formance analysis. Due to the capability of MANs to integrate services, a quantitative analysis of the Quality of Service (QoS) provided by these tech nologies is a relevant issue, and is thus covered in depth in this book.