A scheme for high-performance LAN interconnection across public MAN´s

The proliferation of local area networks (LANs) and the emergence of high-bandwidth public networks will create an environment in which it will become increasingly simple and attractive to communicate among different organizations across a common public networking infrastructure. The open bridging scheme proposed, which employs inherent features of forthcoming cell-based metropolitan area networks (MANs) in order to achieve efficient interenterprise communications is introduced. It uses enhanced remote LAN bridging techniques to ensure router-level functionality with bridge-level simplicity and performance. The practicality of open bridging is shown by describing how it can be incorporated in networks using current standard protocol stacks, such as open systems interconnnection (OSI) and transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP)