On the design of a high performance ATM metropolitan area network

Some aspects of the design of high-performance ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)-compatible MANs (metropolitan area networks) are discussed. In particular, throughput and fairness parameters are examined. As far as fairness is concerned, a merit figure is proposed, and an evaluation procedure is presented. A general approach to cope with the above-mentioned aspects is discussed and, as a proposed solution, a MAC protocol, called adaptive cycle cell insertion (ACCI), is described. The results of a performance evaluation study of the ACCI protocol are compared with those relevant to the current version of the IEEE standard 802.6