A proposal for counting access to synchronous time slots and its application to wide area LANs

An original media access protocol called CAST (counting access to synchronous time slots) is proposed. This protocol can be implemented over long-distance LANs (local area networks). CAST uses a simple algorithm by which each station can recognize its turn of access by counting the total number of signals sent from all preceding stations. An extension to semisynchronous time slots, called CASST, is also examined. These LANs achieve excellent throughput versus transfer time performance compared with that of other LANs