ANALYSIS OF THE RECONFIGURATION OF LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)

THIS PROPOSAL OFFERS AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF DETERMINING HOW LONG A TOKEN RING LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) WILL TAKE TO INITIALLY CONFIGURE, OR TO RECONFIGURE FOLLOWING STATION OR CABLE FAILURE/DAMAGE. THIS RECONFIGURATION TIME IS CRITICAL IN REAL-TIME MILITARY APPLICATIONS AND IN INDUSTRIAL CONTROL APPLICATIONS. THE PHASE I PROPOSAL INVOLVES THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EVENT-STEPPED COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL OF THE RECONFIGURATION ALGORITHMS FOR THE U.S. NAVY'S SAFENET-I LAN WHICH IS BASED ON THE IEEE 802.5 PROTOCOL. THE MODEL WILL YIELD RECONFIGURATION TIME AND RECONFIGURATION PATH FOR ARBITRARY LEVELS OF STATION/CABLE FAILURE. IT WILL INCLUDE STATION BYPASS, CABLE SWITCHING (HOPPING) AND LOOPBACK. THE MODEL WILL BE TABLE-DRIVEN SO AS TO PERMIT "WHAT-IF" ANALYSIS THAT CAN BE USED FOR OPTIMIZATION OF THE RECONFIGURATION ALGORITHM.