IEEE 802.6 MAN Architecture and Evolution to BISDN

Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) are envisioned to provide near-term (early 1990s) technology and a standard platform to support high speed data services. Care should be taken in network planning and deployment of MAN technology that it can be evolved to Broadband ISDN (BISDN). This paper describes a MAN architecture based on the IEEE 802.6 Draft Standard, which can be extended to full BISDN when equipment to provide the latter is deployed. The key issues of Physical Layer evolution (e.g., DS3 to SONET), multipoint distribution using 802.6-based CPE, and Virtual Channel (VC) assignment issues are addressed. Interworking between premises backbones (e.g., FDDI) and network-based MANs is also discussed.