Autonet: a high-speed, self-configuring local area network using point-to-point links

Authors:
  • ABA.D. Birrell
    A.D. Birrell
  • MBM. Burrows
    M. Burrows
  • HMH. Murray
    H. Murray
  • RNR.M. Needham
    R.M. Needham
  • TRT.L. Rodeheffer
    T.L. Rodeheffer
  • ESE.H. Satterthwaite
    E.H. Satterthwaite
  • CTC.P. Thacker
    C.P. Thacker
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Abstract
Autonet is a self-configuring local area network composed of switches interconnected by 100 Mb/s, full-duplex, point-to-point links. The switches contain 12 ports that are internally connected by a full crossbar. Switches use cut-through to achieve a packet forwarding latency as low as 2 ms/switch. Any switch port can be cabled to any other switch port or to a host network controller. A processor in each switch monitors the network's physical configuration. A distributed algorithm running on the switch processor computes the routes packets are to follow and fills in the packet forwarding table in each switch. With Autonet, distinct paths through the set of network links can carry packets in parallel, allowing many pairs of hosts to communicate simultaneously at full link bandwidth. A 30-switch network with more than 100 hosts has been the service network for Digital's Systems Research Center since February 1990

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