Chapter 55. Upgrading from ARCnet to Ethernet or Token-Ring

SOME OF THE MAIN TOPICS IN THIS CHAPTER ARE

ARCnet Overview

Upgrading to Ethernet or Token-Ring

Of the networking technologies still widely used today, ARCnet is the oldest. It was created at Datapoint Corporation in the 1970s and is a token-passing system similar in some ways to Token-Ring. For small networks, ARCnet is a reliable technology that is easy to configure. However, also like Token-Ring, only a small number of manufacturers produce ARCnet equipment when compared to Ethernet. Along with its slow network speed (2.5Mbs), this makes it a prime candidate for an upgrade to newer technology.

Note that there are places where ARCnet is still a viable solution. It is still widely used in factory environments where the network needs to provide a controlled, deterministic access to the network for all devices. In industrial automation scenarios, this is a major requirement. Timing can be a very important issue when dealing with modern machine tools and industrial robots, the gathering of statistical information, and so on. In that case, if ARCnet is not holding its own, you can find other networking solutions, such as Token-Ring, which also provide a deterministic access method to the network. If you are running ARCnet in an old (and I mean old!) office environment, it's time you came into the twenty-first century and upgraded to Ethernet.