Evolution of metropolitan area networks to broadband ISDN

Broadband architecture and network evolution strategies based on interface standards emerging from the IEEE 802.6 MAN Committee and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) T1S1 and CCITT Working Groups on broadband integrated services digital networks (BISDN) are outlined. The recent history of both the MAN and BISDN standards activities is traced, and some of the motivations behind specific developments are discussed. In the context, local area networks (LANs) and MANs are compared and contrasted, with special attention given to requirements specific to a public MAN. The convergence of the MAN and BISDN protocols is examined. The benefits of commonality between these two standards are described in terms of lower-cost network architectures, and terminal equipment is examined. It is shown that broadband networks can exploit the synergy between 802.6-based MANs and wider-area BISDN networks, and that 802.6-based MANs can gracefully evolve into countrywide networks using BISDN asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching. Example networks are used to illustrate the evolution proposals.<<ETX>>