An atmospheric optical ring network

An experimental 10-Mb/s token-ring local area network (LAN) that uses atmospheric optical communication links is described. Objective and subjective performance results are reported for operation over a 170-m-long outdoor path. The data support the following hypotheses. Atmospheric optical communications may find LAN applications as bridges between buildings containing cable subnetworks or as temporary quick connects for new outlying hosts for which cable runs are initially unavailable. LAN protocols for networks incorporating atmospheric optical communications should be modified to best insulate users from the occasional error bursts and bad-weather outages suffered by such links