Some Protocols For Optical-Fiber Digital Communications

Abstract

One works best in heavy traffic, another, in light traffic. Three protocols proposed for digital communications among stations connected by passive taps to pair of uni-directional optical-fiber buses. Mediate round-robin, bounded-delay access to buses by all stations and particularly suited to fast transmission. Partly because transmission medium passive (no relay stations) and partly because protocols distribute control of network among all stations with provision for addition and deletion of stations (no control stations), communication network able to resist and recover from failures. Implicit token propagates in one direction on one bus and in opposite direction on other bus, minimizing interval of silence between end of one round and beginning of next.