An efficient medium access control protocol for high-speed networks

In this paper, we propose a new medium access control (MAC) layer protocol, called optical reservation multiple access (ORMA), which is suitable for data traffic on a folded bus high-speed MANs and LANs. Its main feature is an optical reservation technique, to allow stations to reserve transmission slots, which is attractive for use in high-speed networks. Unlike traditional protocols where reservation is mostly done using software, ORMA performs its reservation function using simple and efficient optical hardware circuits. A complete description of the ORMA protocol is given. Then, ORMA is shown to achieve high throughput and small transmission delays while preserving the fairness of the whole network.