RIB: a register insertion bus fiber optical local area network

The register insertion bus (RIB) access scheme, a protocol that uses a folded-bus topology such as in C-NET and D-Net but reduces overhead by using an approach similar to that used in the interface of the register insertion ring, is described. The protocol uses stations containing two buffers that allow packets in the network to be temporarily stored to avoid conflicts. Performance results based on analysis and simulation are presented. Results show the access scheme to utilize the network efficiently without requiring the overhead associated with a train-type protocol. The protocol is scalable in both transmission speed and packet length. An increase in transmission speed will result in a proportional increase in performance. This protocol serves as the basis for a protocol that uses information gathered from the network to provide a fair distributed access scheme for all loads. The control is based on incrementally increasing or decreasing the time between transmissions based on the measured network load