ENSC
833-3: NETWORK PROTOCOLS AND PERFORMANCE
CMPT 885-3: SPECIAL TOPICS: HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS
FINAL PROJECT
Backbone:
FDDI, ATM or Gigabit Ethernet?
Spring 2001
Yong
Wang, Fang Liu, Chao Chen
WWW page (TBA)
{ywangb,fliua,chaochen}@cs.sfu.ca
1. ABSTRACT
In our project, we are investigating several different technologies
on LAN backbones, such as ATM, FDDI, and Gigabit Ethernet. We use Opnet to do
the simulation. We have constructed an ATM backbone network model, an FDDI backbone
network model, and we are also building a third backbone network, based on
Gigabit Ethernet technology. By running simulations on these models with
variant parameters, we’re collecting some statistics, and thus to compare their
performance, and get some conclusions on the advantages and disadvantages of
these backbones.
2.
INTRODUCTION
LAN-to-LAN interconnect devices are required when a LAN becomes too
large and it becomes necessary to separate the LAN for physical or
manageability reasons. LAN-to-LAN interconnect devices connect LANs with
similar or different media or protocols. Many high-speed LAN technologies have
been developed to date: fast Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM. Due to their high speed,
we use them as network backbone to interconnect different legacy LANs.
Being the first
high-speed (100-Mbps) LAN technology, FDDI saw great success in enterprise LAN
backbones because of its bandwidth and resiliency. But with the emerging of
ATM, which is ideal for new applications demanding a lot of bandwidth, FDDI is
gradually being replaced by ATM technology.
Recently, Gigabit
Ethernet has received much attention since its inception. It can provide a
simple, cost-effective option for backbone and server connectivity, and it’s
ideal for deployment as a backbone interconnect between low-speed LANs and as a
connection to high-performance servers.
For purpose of
evaluating network performance, we use a network simulator Opnet to build
simulation networks, and set up some environment to compare the performance of
different backbones.
Here are main scenarios
we are going to build:
1)
Two LANs (Ethernet), interconnected by a simple 10-Base T link;
2)
Exactly the same two LANs, interconnected by FDDI backbone;
3)
Same two LANs interconnected by ATM backbone;
4)
Same two LANs interconnected by Gigabit Ethernet backbone.
And we have two set of
result we’d like to collect:
1)
In the network, we’re going to put some servers on one LAN, and clients
on another LAN, and let them have some data transmission, while being unaware
of whether it’s a link or a backbone connecting them. Then we collect the
processing time, throughput, delay, and packet loss rate etc. from the servers,
to see the difference between using backbone and not, and also we can see the
different effect we can get by using different backbones.
2)
We put on some application data into the network, try to make the
network congested, and then we investigate the performance of the backbone
network. From the backbone links, we can get performance data such as delay,
throughput, utilization, packet loss rate, and bit error rate. And from these
data we can understand the real performance difference between different
backbones.
And, if time allows, we
will try to apply some real trace data into our network to see how the
different backbones perform on some specific traffic, such as video data.
3.
MAIN SECTIONS
We have three network models in our project, each for one of the three
backbone networks: FDDI, ATM and Gigabit Ethernet.
3.1 FDDI backbone
3.2 ATM backbone
3.3 Gigabit Ethernet backbone
4.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
We propose to see some results to show the advantage of using
backbone, and more specifically, we hope to see Gigabit Ethernet outperforms
other two backbones, because of its high bandwidth and its easy adaptability
with LANs of Ethernet since they’re using basically the same protocol.
1) Shapiro, Sydney F., “ FDDI moves closer to fruition as standard network backbone”, Computer Design, 27, Ag 15 ’88, 35-8
2) Ranai, Kisenchand, Lim, Koon Seng, Deng, Roert Huijie, “ Simulating a multimedia FDDI backbone network”, The Computer Journal, 37 no3, ’94, 188-98
3) Mirchandani Khanna, “FDDI Technology and Applications”, Chapter 14.
4) Darling, Charles B, “Hook your legacy LAN to ATM”. Datamation, 42, S’96, 98-103 [http://staging-datamation.earthweb.com/nwinf/09eval1.html]
5) Strauss, Paul, “ATM backbones: complex? And how!”. Datamation, 40, Jl 15 ’94, 44-6+
6) Raif O. Onvural, “Asynchronous Transfer Mode Network: Performance Issues”, Chapter 3.
7) Akyildiz, Ian F., Bernhardt, Keith L, “ATM local area networks: a survey of requirements, architectures, and standards”. IEEE Communications Magazine, 35, Jl ’97, 72-80 [http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/surveys/reprints/akyildiz.html]
8) Stephen Elbert, et.al, “ Gigabit Ethernet and Low-Cost Supercomputing”, Ames Laboratory Technical Report IS-5126. [http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Publications/Gigabit/tr5126.html]
9) Stephen Saunders, “ Gigabit Ethernet Handbook”, Chapter 14, Chapter 15.