The architecture of the universe network

ABSTRACT

The Universe Network is composed of a number of local area networks at various sites in the U. K., joined by high capacity data links. Apart from one token ring, all of the local area networks are Cambridge rings; the high capacity data links are provided by a 1 Mbit/s satellite broadcast channel. The Universe Project encompasses both the design and implementation of the network, and a program of experiments which make use of the network. One of the notable features of the network is that a host's view of communication over the network is no different from communication over a single ring; no internet protocol is used.

REFERENCES

• 1: Study Group Three of The British Telecom PSS User Forum "A Network Independent Transport Service", 1980.
• 2: Study Group Three of British Telecom PSS User Forum "TS29: A Character Terminal Protocol for Use over the Transport Service", Annex C of Character Terminal Protocols on PSS, 1981.
• 3: British Telecom "Design Requirements for the Connection of Privately Owned and Maintained Equipment to British Telecom MegaStream 2", British Telecom, 1982.
• 4: Clark, D.D., Pogran, K.T., and Reed, D.P. "An Introduction to Local Area Networks", Proceedings of the IEEE, vol 66, no 11, Nov 1978, pp 1497-1517.
• 5: Danny Cohen, Flow control for real-time communication, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, v.10 n.1-2, p.41-47, January-April 1980 [doi>10.1145/1024834.1024836]
• 6: File Transfer Protocol Implementors Group of the Data Communications Unit "A Network Independent File Transfer Protocol", February'1981.
• 7: Jeremy Dion, The Cambridge File Server, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, v.14 n.4, p.26-35, October 1980 [doi>10.1145/850708.850710]
• 8: The Joint Network Team of the Computer Board and Research Councils "Cambridge Ring 82 Protocol Specifications", November 1982.
• 9: Kirstein, P.T., Burren, J.W., Daniels, R., Griffiths, J.W.R., King, D., McDowell, C., and Needham, R.M. "The Universe Project", Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Computer Communication, pp 442-447, North Holland, September 1982.
• 10: Needham, R.M., and Herbert, A.J. The Cambridge Distributed Computing System Addison Wesley, London 1982.
• 11: M. F. Richardson , R. M. Needham, The TRIPOS filing machine, a front end to a file server, Proceedings of the ninth ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, p.120-128, October 10-13, 1983, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States
• 12: Wilkes, M.V., and Wheeler, D.J. "The Cambridge Digital Communication Ring", Proceedings of the Local Area Communication Network Symposium, May 1979, National Bureau of Standards Special Publication.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.5 Local and Wide-Area Networks

General Terms:
Design