OS/2 LAN Server Ultimedia performance on the Token-Ring

Multimedia file server performance is evaluated in terms of the number of multimedia streams that can be supported and the quality of multimedia stream delivery. Providing high-quality stream delivery over a shared media network such as Ethernet or Token-Ring at a significant fraction of the network´s maximum throughput is a major problem for a practical multimedia sever. This paper describes how the IEEE 802.5 Token-Ring priority mechanism is used by OS/2 LAN Server Ultimedia to reserve bandwidth for multimedia file server streams. Results of experiments measuring LAN Server´s ability to deliver high-quality multimedia streams over a Token-Ring are presented. The question of extending high-quality multimedia onto larger networks is discussed