This paper presents the architecture and performance of a new shared media ATM LAN protocol known as pipelined-access local ATM network (PLAN) which has high performance and operates in native ATM mode for efficient and simpler interworking with backbone ATM networks. PLAN is a reservation type bidirectional broadcast bus system protocol in which overhead due to bus propagation delay is limited to a total of twice the end-to-end propagation delay per transmission frame irrespective of the number of stations on the bus. It is designed to (i) support multimedia traffic, (ii) dynamically allocate bandwidth to various types of traffic and provide fair media access to stations, (iii) provide throughput close to 100%, (iv) operate at high bit rates and (v) use packets of ATM cell size and format for interoperability with wide-area ATM networks.
In this paper we present the architecture, analysis and performance of the proposed PLAN protocol under various multimedia traffic conditions. The results show that its throughput approaches 100%, is independent of traffic composition and increases slowly with bit rate. It decreases only slightly as the bus length and/or number of stations increase. The proposed PLAN protocol is seen to be well suited for high-speed multimedia ATM LAN and MAN applications in the ATM networking environment.