Performance of a dynamically segmentable ring network

Abstract

The performance of a dynamically segmentable ring network (R-Segnet) based on the CSMA/CD local area network protocol is studied in this paper. Two routing algorithms for the bidirectional rign are considered. The first transmits a packet in either direction with equal probability while the secons always sends a packet via the shortest path to its destination. Throughput and delay performance comparisons are made against CSMA/CD and against a linear version of this segmentable network (Segnet). These comparisons are conducted for both clustered and nonclustered traffic patterns within the network. The results show that in all cases R-Segnet performs significantly better than conventional CSMA/CD. In the random-destination random-routing case, the performance of R-Segnet is almost similar to that of linear Segnet. When shortest-path routing is used, R-Segnet is shown to be clearly superior. The performance gains are also shown to be shared equitably by all stations in R-Segnet. © 1990.