FDDI Data Link Development
Henry S. Yang, Barry A. Spinney, Stephen Towning · 1991
The fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) data link is based on the ANSI X3T9.5 FDDI standards with Digital's enhancements to provide greater performance, reliability, and robustness. The FDDI project team encountered significant challenges, including the evolving ANSI X3T9.5 FDDI standards and the development of the technology to implement the data link, coupled with time-to-market pressure. Appropriate considerations and design tradeoffs were made to design complexity, performance, risk, cost, and schedule, when deciding functional partitioning and semiconductor technology. Extensive simulations and a novel test approach were used to verify the algorithms, the functional models comprising the chips, and the physical chips themselves. Introduction The proliferation and importance of distributed system applications place special requirements on networks in terms of topological flexibility, performance, reliability, scalability, robustness, and efficiency. The advent of fiber optics,...