A novel multiplex-port brouter for regional PC communication network systems and its performance

Research is being conducted on regional personal computer (PC) communicatio n network systems to provide convenient and cost-effective PC communication services to local home users and small companies. A group communication se rvice was proposed that offers connectionless communication to registered u sers via an Ethernet interface on the customers' premises. An experimental system was developed and tested. This paper presents a newly developed mult iplex-port brouter that can accommodate a large number of subscribers and e valuates its performance. The system configuration and brouter architecture are also described. The configuration and function of custom LSIs that per form high-speed HDLC coding and decoding are presented. A measurement schem e that simulates multiple PC accesses is shown. The brouter performance is evaluated using PCs connected via a subscriber network system. (C) 1999 Scr ipta Technica.