REMOTE INTERCONNECTION OF LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

摘要

71493-34 A Local Area Network (LAN) is a digital Communications network interconnecting serial local computer workstations. The invention provides a technique for interconnecting two or more remote LAN's. In a specific embodiment the LAN's are IBM Token Rings in which case the notion of a virtual or pseudo ring is conceived to represent the network between the remote Token Rings. Each Token Ring is connected to the network by a respective halfbridge. Each half-bridge enters a number representing the pseudo ring in the Routing Information field of the frames it forwards over the network to a remote half-bridge. The frames are preferably multiplexed by encapsulating them in a LAPD-compatible frame having a header containing an identifier which identifies the half-bridge for which the frame is destined.