ALAN: A (CIRCUIT-SWITCHED) LOCAL AREA NETWORK.

The view of the authors is that people (that is, programmers and general computer users) tend to work together in small groups, where information and resources are shared freely within a group. Most interactions occur within the group (called a cluster) - sending messages, exchanging data, sharing a printer. This paper describes the attempt to design a cluster network based on a nonblocking crosspoint switch, which is called ALAN (a local area net). ALAN clusters are star-connected - with intelligent workstation nodes (PC's) kat the points of the star, and the ALAN switch at the center.