Performance of a hierarchical subscriber network

The authors present the performance study of a hierarchical subscriber network using simulation. This network is a proposed alternative to the existing circuit-switched star-topology local subscriber loop. It will provide support for the current narrowband ISDN services. The subscriber network comprises a high-speed optical fibre backbone network, using the FDDI protocol, interconnecting medium-speed local access networks, using a modified version of the IEEE 802.4 Token-Passing Bus Protocol. The performance study is carried out using network traffic categorized into high (voice) and low (data) priority. The results presented cover the end-to-end delay of packets and the voice packet loss