Use of FDDI in real time military systems

The modern military system architecture is based upon distributed nodes connected by a local area network (LAN). Each node will perform a subset of the overall systems function. To act fast, in real time, it is necessary that all the processing has been completed on one unit of data before the next one becomes available. Most systems have the task of receiving data, correlating the received data, taking decisions, and taking action. The use of a local area network within a system will impose delays to the data. This disadvantage is far outweighed by the numerous advantages gained by designing distributed systems. The author details the requirements of, and an implementation of a system using FDDI for its local area network