A new fault-tolerant configuration for the Cambridge Ring: the Hierarchical Ring-Star

The primary objective of this research is to look at ways of resolving the reliability problems of the Cambridge Ring local area network system. The result is a novel design to enhance the Cambridge Ring with fault tolerance by introducing redundant communication paths with dynamic reconfiguration. The proposed Ring-Star system combines the advantages of ring and star networks to create a network which is topologically resilient while retaining the efficient communication advantage of rings. [Continues.]