An integrated voice/data protocol for local area bus networks

A distributed protocol for integrated voice/data traffic on a local area bus network is discussed. The protocol uses announcement and reservation techniques. A two-dimensional Markov model is used to estimate the performance of both traffic types. The performance of voice traffic is much like a centrally controlled time-division multiplexing (TDM) system, due to the short propagation delay properties of local area networks, and the data traffic behavior is similar to a CSMA-type system, since the data protocol is basically a variation of carrier-sense multiaccess with collision detection (CSMA/CD). The interactive effects between voice and data traffic are investigated and discussed. It is shown that the protocol fulfils the requirements of both types of traffic and the unified voice/data access simplifies the design and implementation of interfaces. The use of dynamic voice and data bandwidth allocation achieves efficient usage of the channel, and the protocol performs well for all values of traffic intensity. Simulation results validate the performance model and show good consistency with analytic results