Survivable SuperNetwork-a 100 Mbit/s LAN with arbitrary redundancy

SuperNetwork is a fiber-optic network presently available with a 100 Mbit data rate, capable of supporting a very large host population and readily attached to other networks such as Ethernet and FDDI. A way that SuperNetwork can be made resistant to multiple simultaneous faults by the use of redundancy is described. In general, the level of redundancy that can be installed is limited only by cost. Different parts of the same network can be resistant to different numbers of simultaneous faults. The technique allows, for example, the data paths between buildings of a campus network to be constructed with extra survivability compared to the paths within buildings. Several alternative arrangements of the redundant components are discussed and compared