Design and performance evaluation of a high throughput Ethernet/FDDI interconnect

A filtering algorithm, called MFA, that sets the minimum power requirements for a bridge connecting an Ethernet LAN to a fiber-distributed data interface (FDDI) backbone is introduced. With current technology, however, even MFA cannot be implemented in software at an acceptable speed. A hardware solution based on the use of content-addressable memories (CAMs) is described, and a comparison is made between hardware and software solutions through analytical and simulation models.<<ETX>>