A proposal for a metropolitan area network with priority for the synchronous traffic

An alternative metropolitan area network (MAN) is proposed. Unlike the current MAN standardization, such as FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) or DQDB (distributed queueing dual bus), the proposed network gives priority to the synchronous traffic (voice) and uses a distributed digital switching technique. The objective of this kind of network is to reduce the initial investment cost of a telephone local network that has customers spread over a large area. The network is flexible enough to be compatible with emerging B-ISDN, according to the international trend. The proposed network configuration and the access control protocol are discussed here. The mathematical modeling and the performance analysis of the network are also presented.>