Overview of a Broad-Band Local Area Network Protocol Architecture

The protocol architecture of a broad-band local area network (LAN) must consider a realm of issues ranging from user device requirements to the characteristics of the underlying broad-band cable medium. The primary environment for which these protocols are intended consists of a collection of multichannel broad-band local networks, connected by point-to-point links. This paper describes one example of a broad-band LAN protocol architecture, LocalNet (^TMSytek Inc.). Particular attention is paid to those design decisions and practical considerations which were prompted by the intended environment.