Tokenless Protocols for Fiber Optic Local Area Networks

A family of LAN (Local Area Network) protocols is presented. The LAN consists of a pair of unidirectional fiber optic buses to which stations are connected via passive taps. The protocols provide round-robin bounded delay access to all stations. Contrary to most roundrobin access schemes, the protocols do not require transmission of special packets (tokens); rather, they simply rely on the detection of bus activity at each station. The performance of these protocols in various traffic conditions and system configurations is evaluated via analysis and simulation.