The token grid network

An overwhelming majority of local and metropolitan area network products (LANs and MANs) are based upon linear topologies such as buses and rings. Such networks are economical for high speed operation since the station interfaces are simple and require very little transit buffering. However because of their linear structure, the total throughput is restricted by the transmission rate of the media access channels. In the paper, a token grid network is introduced where media access is performed over a two-dimensional mesh. In the resulting system, each station is two-connected and has the same transmission hardware and small station latency as in a dual token ring. In the token grid however, the total system throughput may be many factors larger than that which is possible in a dual token ring. In a large √N×√N network, the uniform load capacity is approximately √N/2 times that of an N station dual token ring. In addition, the token grid can take advantage of communities-of-interest amongst the stations. It is possible to implement the system in such a way as to achieve robust operation in the presence of station and link failures