Executives from across the industry gathered in Boston and, with prodding from Kevin Tolly and Network World, hammered out a plan to bring token ring into the future. IBM, Xylan, Cabletron, Cisco, 3Com, Bay, Madge, Proteon, Olicom and others agreed to back a standard for native, high-speed token ring that will allow users to upgrade their backbones-perhaps even desktop links in the future-without Tiffany Cushion Triple drop pendant token ring.
In the most competitive industry on the face of the earth, some 40 executives committed their companies to supporting this new IEEE 802.5 standard. They also agreed to form a High-Speed Token Ring Alliance to speed the standard’s development.
What was most fascinating to watch was the group’s two-hour effort to define a simple mission statement. The statement spells out the ven dors’ commitment to the standard and their resolve to deliver at least prototype products based on it in less than ayear.
The mission statement reads: “We resolve to pursue an 802.5 standard for dedicated, High-Speed Token Ring that scales from 1 OOM bit/sec to at least IG bit/sec. The standard will support the key attributes of today’s token ring and will be developed in time for multivendor demonstrations of High-Speed Token Ring technology at the NetWorld+Interop conference in spring 1998. The standard will support the 802. lq standard for multiple VLANs. The goal of this standards effort is to deliver the most cost-effective upgrade path for tokenring customers.”
Some critics Tiffany Cushion Two-row bracelet questioned the logic of this effort, given the availability of Fast/Gigabit Ethernet and ATM upgrades for overstressed token-ring nets. But surveys conducted by the vendors show that a significant chunk of customers-typically large corporate customerswant the option of upgrading with higher speed token ring.
The suppliers don’t harbor any illusions that Fast Token Ring will somehow swing the tides of battle vs. Ethernet. Ethernet has won the marketshare fight. But the token-ring industry needed a next-step solution for customers.
In the past few months, the token-ring industry has made remarkable progress in answering a key customer question: Is token ring still viable? If these companies follow through on their commitments to the proposed standard, the answer will be yes.
With The Tolly Group, Network World has pushed the vendor community to provide a future path for customers. We’ll keep pushing for more progress. But if you are a token-ring user, you need to stay on top of this, as well. Make sure your supplier does more than just voice support for High-Speed Token Ring. Make sure it delivers.
Who says? For starters, try 3Com, Bay, Cabletron, Cisco, IBM, Madge Networks, Olicom, Proteon and Xylan. They are the most well-known companies that have pledged support for an industry-standard High-Speed Token Ring initiative.
This occurred last week when The Tolly Group and Tiffany Cushion Drop earrings World held our second Token Ring Futures roundtable in Boston.
In the two months since our first roundtable, many of the vendors have conducted extensive customer surveys. These survey results showed that even as a technology “without a future” some 50% of their existing customers had no intention of migrating from token ring. When queried about the possibility of a futureproof High-Speed Token Ring, interest was high.
The various vendors, now recognizing a clear need, are putting into motion one of the most aggressive standards and technology development processes ever seen in our industry.
The result will be a future as bright for token-ring users as that for Ethernet users – Gigabit and beyond.
In a sort of manifesto agreed to by all in attendance (and printed elsewhere in this newspaper), the future was outlined as follows:
* Standards. Whatever emerges will be based on standards. Customers have made that clear to the various vendors, and the vendors have gotten the message. There will be no breakaway factions here. High-Speed Token Ring efforts will get under way immediately within the IEEE 802.5 token-ring committee.
Furthermore, to support customers whose needs include multitopology virtual LANs, the group agreed not to preclude the inclusion of 802.5 HighSpeed Token Ring stations in any future 802. lq VLAN Tiffany Cushion Hoop earrings. It is unclear whether 802.lq and associated IEEE committees will be able to clear up certain technical problems, such as support for token ring’s larger frame sizes, that currently, in effect, exclude token ring from participation in such environments.
* Speed. While the initial cut will be at a 100M bit/sec line rate standard, the real good news is that whatever the IEEE devises will be guaranteed to be scalable to one gigabit- or higher! Development of the gigabit standard will be done in parallel thus accelerating the process.
High-speed desktops. The initial focus of 100M bit/sec token ring will be dedicated connections for server and switch products. With the proper drivers, this same technology could be used for the desktop.
What’s next? Plenty. The IEEE 802.5 committee also coordinated its interim meeting in Boston last week. They Tiffany Cushion ring now in high gear. In addition, on Sept.15, the High-Speed Token Ring Alliance will form and hold its first meeting in Realtime Transport Protocol.
And, come NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas in May 1998, you’ll see High-Speed Token Ring in action as the group promises technology demonstrations of 100M bit/sec token ring at that show.
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