Re: [SLUG] Synchronous network ?

[Ken Yap <ken@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>Present ethernets, from what I understand, transmit on demand and 
>perform a random timeout in the event of collision. This means

More precisely, random timeouts chosen from exponentially increasing
intervals.

>throughput drops at around 60-70% utilisation (can't remember the
>exact figure).
>
>How about having the nodes in a cycle, where each one transmits, after
>which the next one either transmits data or a "I'm here but no data
>to transmit", so the next one could.

Congratulations, you've just reinvented token ring networks.

The reason Ethernet's collision resolution strategy isn't a big deal is
because modern networks have so much headroom. Switched Ethernet also
helps. Token rings do have the advantage of bounded delay.