Gigabit Token Ring Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gigabit Token Ring - Research Paper Example It is possible to make use either of the first two token rings in the same equipment. The drawback to this functionality is that the introduction of a new device to such network brings problems to the entire ring (Carlo, 1998). The token ring was first initiated by IBM in the early 80s in their research facility located in Zurich. In 1985, IBM launched its fist token-ring product as a form of adapter that could be used in their original personal computers. In the following year, in collaboration with Texas Instruments, they jointly developed a chipset to help other companies to develop devices that are compatible with the token ring. The year 1989 saw IBM introduce an improved version of their earlier token ring model which had a speed of 4 Mbit/sec. The improved version had a speed of 16 Mbit/sec and in line with this development; the IEEE 802.5 standard was extended to cover it (Muller, 2003). In the year 1994, the leading suppliers of token ring created the Alliance for Strategic Token-ring Advancement and Leadership (ASTRAL) whose main mission was increase the speed of Token-Ring technology to counter the ever rising popularity of Ethernet technology. The members of this group included: ACE/North Hills, 3Com, Bytex, Bay Networks, Cabletron, Chipcom , Centillion, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, , Intel, Olicom ,Madge, Racore, Proteon, Texas Instruments, SMC, UB Networks., Xircom, and XPoint (Muller, 2003). In 1997, a revised version of 802.5 standards was developed which marked the introduction of Dedicated Token-Ring. It was a form of full duplex token ring that bypassed the usual protocol used by token ring in data transfer. A single station thus had the capability of sending and receiving data streams concurrently. This had the effect of doubling the transfer rate of any token ring such that a 4 Mbit/sec dedicated Token-ring station acquired an overall transfer rate of 8 Mbit/sec. They are mainly Type 1, type 6 and type 3. The first wiring done on token ring