Network access fairness control for concurrent traffic in gigabit LANs

A buffer insertion ring with network access fairness control for gigabit LANs is proposed. The basic buffer insertion ring has the maximum spatial reuse on the multiple ring segments by allowing concurrent traffic, but it suffers from the possibility of station starvation. To solve this problem, a notion of adjustable fairness based on mutual interference between pairs of stations in bandwidth usage is defined. The adjustable fairness definition serves as a basis for conditions to trigger backpressure signals. A cooperative backpressure mechanism is invented for flow regulation. The effectiveness of the proposed network access mechanism is demonstrated by comparisons with other buffer insertion rings based on simulations.<>