Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!SEISMO.CSS.GOV!mo From: mo@SEISMO.CSS.GOV.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Token nets and deterministic behavior Message-ID: <8704081413.AA20986@beno.CSS.GOV> Date: Wed, 8-Apr-87 09:13:51 EST Article-I.D.: beno.8704081413.AA20986 Posted: Wed Apr 8 09:13:51 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Apr-87 06:48:04 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 12 Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa Having actually conducted experiments to measure these claims of deterministic behavior, I can say that (1) it simply ain't so and (2) you don't WANT it to be so. Token rings have their own brand of strange pathologies related to convoying, syncronized buffer blocking, and such. It is very clear from our experiments that the hardware never read the papers describing the "theoretical" behavior. "Fantasized" would be a better word. The paper, and a couple of others along the same line, is in the Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Computer Networking, December, 1983, if you care to look at the numbers. -Mike O'Dell