Juan A. Garay, Inder S. Gopal, et al.
Journal of Algorithms
We review the underlying principles and design of the MetaNet, a LAN/MAN architecture with an "arbitrary topology" (i.e., a switch-based LAN). Its design provides on one hand a service in which every node can try to transmit asynchronously, in a bursty manner without reservation (as much as it can) as in shared-media LANs. On the other hand, the network access and flow control ensure the following properties: (1) no cell/packet loss due to congestion, (2) fair access to the network, (3) no deadlocks, (4) dynamic self-routing, and (5) broadcast-with-feedback. The switching over this network requires only a single buffer per link-as in buffer insertion rings. The dynamic self-routing on the MetaNet is a variant of deflection routing. It makes on-line routing decisions based on the local flow of traffic (load conditions). Unlike other deflection techniques the MetaNet routing is along a global sense of direction, which guarantees that packets will reach their destinations. Thus, we call this method convergence routing (previous deflection algorithms do not guarantee deterministic routing convergence, i.e., a cell/packet can be deflected indefinitely inside the network). A natural implementation of a global sense of direction is embedding a virtual ring in a tree that spans the network. The links of the virtual ring are numbered sequentially, such that the numbering establishes a linear measure of the distance to the destination. © 1994.
Juan A. Garay, Inder S. Gopal, et al.
Journal of Algorithms
Bülent Yener, Yoram Ofek, et al.
LCN 1993
Rahul Simha, Yoram Ofek
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems
Jeane Chen, Hamid Ahmadi, et al.
LCN 1991