A new scheme for dynamic management of isochronous channels in integrated rings

A new scheme is presented that allows dynamic maintenance, allocation, and release of the isochronous bandwidth in integrated rings. The scheme is flexible since it permits the stations to bundle together several low-speed isochronous channels to form one high-speed isochronous channel. Acquiring isochronous channels by ring stations and releasing them are decentralized, cheap, fast, and simple processes. The overhead bandwidth required by the scheme is negligible. The allocation rate is not affected by the actual load in the ring. The main principle behind the new scheme is to divide the isochronous bandwidth into fixed length slots and to maintain the available channels in each slot as a linked list.