Trends towards ultra high capacity local area networks

The authors describe the early development of LAN technologies and look at modern high capacity LANs based on fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) and distributed queue dual bus (DQDB) standards. The technological capabilities and limitations of current LANs and the service requirements in future LANs are also discussed. Among the specific systems discussed are: ESPIRIT Ultrawideband Coherent Optical LAN (UCOL) and RACE Wavelength and Time Division Multiplexing Broadband Customer Premises Network