Fiber optics backbone for IEEE 802.3 networks
Ron Shani · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1990
In the last few years the IEEE 802.3 committee has developed fiber optics inter-repeater link standard called FOIRL. This standard defines the Fiber Optics Media Access Unit (FOMAU) which is used to connect two IEEE 802.3 repeaters that are up to 1Km apart. The IEEE 802.3 lOBaseF task force is currently standardizing a full F/O system in two directions: passive and active. The active approach is a compromise between the FOIRL (Asynchronous) approach and the Synchronous approach. As a result of this activity the IEEE 802.3 standard will define three different F/O interfaces and several devices that will not inter-operate. Such a standard will lower the credibility among the IEEE 802.3 user community, as customers will be confused amidst the many chapters and devices with no clear choice. This paper describes a method that can reduce the number of standards to two (passive and active), while proposing a solution for all the requirements of 802.3 F/O LAN. (The question of passive vs active approach will be discussed in this paper).