Design, performance, and operational characteristics of an FDDI testbed
N. Testi, Steven A. Gossage, W.D. Ralph · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1991
Sandia National Laboratories has recently completed a major upgrade of its Central Computing Network (CCN), which is a large heterogeneous network providing scientific supercomputing, file storage, output services, and remote access to network resources. The new network, called the Secure Supercomputing Network (SSN), is based on the HPYERchannel-100 technology platform and is primarily a UNIX-TCP/IP network environment. A migration from the HYPERchannel-100 hardware platform presently in use on the SSN to the Network Systems Corporation (NSC) Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) hardware platform is currently being considered for several reasons. First, Sandia supports the movement from proprietary hardware and software solutions to standardized solutions. Second, the inherent robustness of the FDDI standard would provide the reliability which is critical to production computing at the Labs. Finally, the potential for tuning the ring for specific applications and connection schemes is an advantage over HYPERchannel. In order to evaluate the NSC FDDI technology platform, an FDDI testbed has been constructed, consisting of two independent FDDI rings. The rings are connected via T3 (44.736 Megabits/second) and T1 (1.544 Megabits/second) link Data Exchange Units (DXUs), and an FE649 FDDI/FDDI router. In addition to a variety of NSC FDDI DXUs and associated host computers, severalmore » other vendors' FDDI products are also present on the testbed. Test data on fault isolation and recovery mechanisms, performance, IP routing (within and between rings), IP packet labeling, monitor capabilities, and interoperability'' will be presented. The design and implementation of the underlying fiber optic physical plant will also be discussed.« less