Twin-bus-controller protocol for fibre optic networks

A new Data Link Layer protocol, named the Twin-Bus-Controller (TBC) protocol, is proposed for a fibre optic network with unidirectional bus topology. The TBC protocol operates on a contention-based, time-division multiplexing scheme, and is managed by two centralized bus controllers. These controllers, which also function as network managers cooperate with each other to control and coordinate the activities on the twin bus. The IBC protocol has the capability to perform at a very high network utilization, and uses simple hardware at all stations except the two bus controllers. This arrangement provides a relatively inexpensive means to accommodate a large number of stations. Heterogeneous data consisting of real-time sensor and control signals, voice and video data, and non-real-time data such as those due to accounting and administration, can be simultaneously handled by the TBC protocol. The TBC protocol maintains global queues for all different types of data, and each class of data has a bounded delay. Furthermore, any new type of data can be added easily to the network without shutting it down or affecting those stations that are unrelated to the new data. A finite-state-machine model has been used to describe the TBC protocol. Performance of the TBC protocol has been evaluated by statistical analysis as well as via simulation for multiple classes of data traffic. Performance of the TBC protocol has been compared with that of Buzznet and Fasnet. The TBC protocol can be directly applied to diverse computer communication systems, e.g. office, manufacturing, and banking environments.