High-speed local area networks and their performance

Abstract

At high data transmission rates, the packet transmission time of a local area network (LAN) could become comparable to or less than the medium propagation delay. The performance of many LAN schemes degrades rapidly when the packet transmission time becomes small comparative to the medium propagation delay. This paper introduces LANs and discusses the performance degradation of LANs at high speeds. It surveys recently proposed LAN schemes designed to operate at high data rates, including their performance characteristics desirable in LAN medium access protocols are identified and discussed. The paper serves as a tutorial for readers less familiar with local computer communication networks. It also serves as a survey of the state-of-the-art LANs.