Design and implementation of a network controller for a local area network

Abstract

Resource Management is an extremely important concern for the network manager. Of the bus, ring and the star network topologies, usually employed in a local area network, the bus topology provides the highest reliability. However, peer-to-peer protocols usually followed in such a topology, make it extremely difficult to incorporate resource management features at a lower level of network architecture.

This thesis presents design considerations for a session-level network controller, to be implemented on a local area network with a bus topology. The controller, will provide essential resource management, and attempt to improve the throughput of the network. The design is based on a single-board computer, and a streamlined operating system is also included in the design. It is claimed that such an environment will be ideal for networking tasks, like the controller presented. The design is software-oriented, though device selection is discussed, both for the controller and its network interface. The local area network used for the development of this project is a sixteen hundred node campus network at Virginia Tech ( using LocalNet 20) supplied by SYTEK, Inc.