An Ethernet-like CSMA/CD protocol for high speed bus LANs

A collision protocol called piggyback Ethernet which is applicable for fast bus-type networks based on single, uniform, unsegmented, broadcast-type carriers is presented. Although piggyback Ethernet assumes that each station possesses certain global knowledge about the geometry of the network, it is argued that this knowledge can be acquired automatically at a reasonably small expense. The performance of the protocol for very heavy traffic is not worse than the performance of other protocols operating in a completely synchronized manner. The advantage this solution is its very good performance for light loads which is, for practical purposes, not worse than the performance of Ethernet. Moreover, compared to other protocols for fast networks, piggyback Ethernet has quite modest hardware requirements. The network is based on a straightforward bidirectional cable, each station has only one connection to the bus, and the actual length of the carrier is not bigger than the maximum distance between two stations.