icbnet

Special Issue: Networks in Metropolitan Area

Connectionless (CL) services as already developed in LANs, have to interwork with emerging asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connection-oriented (CO) networks. MANs are a significant evolutionary step and CO MANs, in particular, constitute a technically appealing method to integrate both environments and provide shared medium access for all services. The functions required for enhancing distributed-queue dual-bus (DQDB) MANs with CO services in a way compatible with ATM are described. Within the integrating framework of B-ISDN, the practically useful scenarios for interworking LANs, CO and CL MANs, and ATM are investigated and classified in order to exploit the advantages of an efficient protocol relay utilizing the resources of the lowest possible layer. This is aimed at assisting interworking unit (IWU) designers and implementors to decide on key options in this versatile and evolving environment. The CO DQDB case emerges as the most advantageous development in terms of interworking simplicity and robustness