Active Star Configured Fiber Optic CSMA/CD LANs

The widespread use of the IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD (Ethernet) Local Area Network (LAN) has created demand for a fiber optic physical layer implementation to address security issues, hostile electromagnetic environments, modern structured wiring requirements and distance limitations of coaxial based implementations. Active Star CSMA/CD LANs will be described in this paper which consist of a central wiring Concentrator which supports point to point fiber links to Media Access Units (Transceivers) located at the Host computers. The fiber optic Active Star configured CSMA/CD LAN implementation provides a robust network which meets all the requirements imposed on an Ethernet Physical Layer. Collision detection is reliably performed in the electrical domain of the Concentrator. Network requirements included guaranteed collision detection, network reliability and easy addition and rearrangement of host connections. In addition, the Active Star implementation can provide an increased network diameter to 4.2 km and can support the four basic multimode fiber types, simultaneously, with substantial system margins.© (1987) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.