Simulating a multimedia FDDI backbone network

Abstract

The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is an ANSI standard for high speed fiber optic ring networks. Its media access control (MAC) protocol operates on the basis of a timed-token ring, and allows the transmission of both time critical and normal prioritized data. Because of these characteristics, it is highly suitable for use in a multimedia environment where there are a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous data classes. This paper describes an implementation of the FDDI MAC protocol using the RESQ2 simulation language and studies the behaviour of the protocol when used as a large multimedia backbone network where stations represent gateway connections to peripheral LANs. It also investigates the behaviour of symmetric and asymmetric loading on such large networks and some potential problems that may be encountered.