"Sampsa" == Sampsa Laine <sampsa at mac.com> writes:
If you have other FDDI devices that also have A or B ports, just
plug A to B in a circular fashion, and you have a dual ring. This
is the topology that FDDI originally started with early in its
development.
Sampsa> So if I have two dual port PCI cards, one in machine 1, one
Sampsa> in machine 2, I wire them:
Sampsa> 1.A. -> 2.B 2.A -> 1.B
Sampsa> To create a circle? Do I HAVE to do this, i.e. can I just
Sampsa> wire one cable between machine 1 and 2 (the cables are
Sampsa> EXPENSIVE, like 3x what the adapter cost me)?
One connection is fine.
As I mentioned, the standard topology for A/B stations (Dual Attached
stations) is A to B in a circular fashion. That creates a pair of
rings. And that topology can handle single faults: the loss of a
single port or single cable.
If you just connect the two stations with a single cable, what you
created is a dual ring with a single fault -- one of the two cables is
missing. That will work just fine.
paul