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

Author

Golmie, N. ; Mouveaux, F. ; Su, D.

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

266

Abstract

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

Keywords

IEEE standards; access protocols; asynchronous transfer mode; hybrid fibre coax networks; quality of service; telecommunication standards; ATM transfer; IEEE 802.14; MAC protocols; MCNS; contention access; hybrid fiber/coax networks; interface specifications; medium access control; quality of service; standard interface; variable length IP packets; Access protocols; Coaxial cables; Coaxial components; Communication cables; Hybrid fiber coaxial cables; IP networks; Internet telephony; Media Access Protocol; Optical fiber LAN; Optical fiber cables;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Communications, 1999. ICC '99. 1999 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Vancouver, BC

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5284-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICC.1999.767937

Filename

767937