| 摘要 |
The invention includes a bridge having n ports (n>1), each port being connected to a Token-Ring physical segment, each physical segment having one native Token-Ring workstation attached. The bridge to the workstations a single Token-Ring logical segment with a single Active Monitor and a single Ring Number. The invention includes a centralized medium access control (MAC) function inside a centralized processor instead of a MAC function implemented at each port of the bridge; the frame handling function, due to the fixed and limited configuration (same bridge Active Monitor seen by all connected stations), does not require a multi-port bridge function, but a simpler switch function between ports. Bridge clocking is also simplified, and a cost effective unshield twisted pair (UTP) retiming solution is presented.
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