A comparison of MAC protocols for hybrid fiber/coax networks: IEEE 802.14 vs. MCNS

Both the IEEE and MCNS medium access control (MAC) interface specifications for hybrid fiber/coax networks share a common goal to provide a standard interface to the same anticipated services (such as cable telephony, Internet and on-line access for Web browsing, chat rooms, interactive games, local area network emulation for work-at-home applications and desktop conferencing). However the solutions offered by the two groups have little in common at the MAC layer. IEEE 802.14 chose ATM transfer as its default solution while MCNS uses a scheme that favors the delivery of variable length IP packets. Our goal in this study is to conduct a comparative performance evaluation of both IEEE 802.14 and MCNS MAC specifications. We focus on the efficiency of the two solutions in terms of contention access, ATM vs IP transfer, and adequate quality of service provision