Performance of high priority traffic on a token bus network

The authors propose a cost equation to measure the performance of a communications network handling several classes of disparate data. Specifically, it accounts for how well the network is satisfying the time-constraint requirements of each class of data. To compute this measure for the token-passing bus, the authors develop the necessary analysis to compute the queue statistics and delay distribution for the highest priority class. This analysis is based on the formulation of an M/G/1 vacation model with a gated limited server. Results are provided from a simulation study of this model to validate the analysis