Lightnet: a class of efficient high speed access protocols

New and simple high-speed access protocols for unidirectional media work on the same topologies as Expressnet, but instead of providing an asynchronous round-robin service, they give a synchronous service. The medium access is random but includes a reservation scheme to guarantee fairness and determinism, and to prevent starvation. These protocols allow high utilization of channel capacity regardless of propagation delay, the number of active stations, and the distribution of the traffic. Access delays remain very small. Simple analytical models are proposed for evaluating the protocols. Results derived from these models are compared with results from simulation. The match between the two is quite good. Also included is a comparison between Expressnet and Lightnet protocols