THE FDDI PILOT PROJECT IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
Date
1991-03-01
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Abstract
Continued demands on the Computer Science Department's resources forced
an unsatisfactory network topology. Sun Microsystem's implementation of
FDDI was selected to replace the backbone, and is the first such
installation in Western Canada. The paper reviews the hardware, software
and topology of FDDI systems, explains the configuration chosen for the
department, and discusses the installation. Each ring node requires a
VME bus FDDI controller board. Physically the ring is star connected,
providing convenient patch panel reconfiguration for maintenance and
testing. All department file/client servers were attached to the ring,
while groups of client workstations are controlled over sub-Ethernets.
The resulting topology is a central backbone ring, with sub-Ethernets
radiating from each FDDI node. FDDI's simplicity enables performance
improvements in addition to the increased speed, so long as the network
topology and systems configuration are carefully designed. Reliability
is achieved by duplication of file systems on all ring nodes, so that
any subnetwork may operate independently of the ring. We conclude by
recommending that machine crashes should cause the FDDI board to pass
through the data, rather than wrapping the dual rings and possibly
causing unnecessary ring fragmentation. The paper discusses the relative
merits of concentrators and optical bypass switches for fragmentation
protection.
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Keywords
Computer Science