A simulation study of enhanced arbitration methods for improving Ethernet performance

In an Ethernet with high offered load, lengthy and highly variable packet delays can occur. These delays are due in part to the "capture effect" whereby a single station can dominate packet transmission on an Ethernet that uses the standard Binary Exponential Backoff(BEB) arbitration algorithm despite other stations also having packets queued for transmission. One proposed solution to this problem is the Binary Logarithmic Arbitration Method (BLAM) under review by the IEEE 802.3 standards committee. This paper presents a performance evaluation of BLAM and a new, simpler arbitration method called BEB2. It is shown that both BLAM and BEB2 reduce the mean and variance of packet delay and can thus improve the transport of real-time voice traffic on Ethernet. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.