2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the internet, a decentralized communication network at a global level, which germinated in the 90s, but for whose development hundreds of researchers and engineers have planted their seeds since the 60s.
The first scientific network in the world was ARPANET, which saw the light in 1968, and was conceived as an academic network of connection between computers. As its use became popular, it was necessary to establish a network architecture, a standardized system of connection between computers, this time, open to the public, which allowed the ‘democratization’ of the internet.
In 1969 EE Newhall designs a first network architecture for IBM, token ring . The company first published it in 1982, and three years later it became the standard for businesses and individuals.
How does a token ring network work?
The token ring network refers to a ‘ring network, because each computer is connected to its neighbors on the left and on the right, closing a circle.
Its main characteristic is that it works as a ‘ token pass’: the token passes from one computer to another, and only computers that currently have a token or signal can send data packets to the network. This avoids collisions, which is one of the main advantages of the token ring protocol.
What if you don’t want to send anything? As explained in this Nobbot article, the token continues to pass through all computers. If you do not want to send any information, you simply ‘pass the baton’ to the next one. And, if you want to send something, you just have to attach the information packet to the token, which will deliver the data to the corresponding computer in the next round (following the order established by the circle).
An important detail: so that the signal sent does not lose intensity along the way, each user works as a repeater: that is, his computer reads the packet, loads it again, and sends it back to the ring. Once the message is delivered, it clears the data and the token is released.
When ethernet unseated token ring
With the passage of time, the token ring architecture was becoming outdated in favor of another protocol: Ethernet (which comes from the physical concept of ether), was developed in the 70s by Intel and Xerox, and became the worst threat of the protocol token ring , for having a series of competitive advantages. First, it offered much higher megabyte coverage. While token ring could offer between 4 and 16 Mbps, and very exceptionally it reached up to 100 Mbps, Ethernet was capable of offering 100 Mbps without problem, and later it made speeds of the order of Gbps (the Giga Ethernet) a reality.
But speed wasn’t the only token ring problem with Ethernet – there was also an economic problem. The web architecture developed by IBM was not able to compete with Ethernet because the license price was too high. As a consequence, Ethernet offered similar speeds at much more competitive prices.
At the end of the 90s, IBM had to give in to the evidence, and Ethernet became the system of choice for companies, and the standard for wired LAN connections; despite maintaining the inconvenience of collisions in the use of the network, a problem for which the token ring protocol was much more stable.
Years later, the innovation in connections has caused a new competitor to emerge in the world of web architecture: the new threat of the Ethernet is the WiFi network, a new reference standard and the connection system par excellence of all our devices.
