ATMR (Asynchronous Transfer Mode Ring) is a media access control (MAC) protocol for high speed local and metropolitan area networks (HSLANs and MANs) working in the Gbit/s range. The ATMR network architecture is based on a combination of a slotted ring network, spatial slot reuse and a distributed cycle reset mechanism. The number of stations supported by the ATMR protocol is limited because of the busy address scheme of the protocol. In order to resolve this problem, a method (common busy address scheme) was proposed, which allocates busy addresses only to specific stations. By using the common busy address scheme the maximal station number in the ATMR protocol can be extended or the length of the access control field (ACF) can be reduced. Based on discrete event simulations the performance of the common busy address scheme is evaluated and compared with the original ATMR protocol. The simulation results demonstrate that the throughput degradation caused by common busy address scheme is very small, if the locations of the stations with specific addresses are uniformly distributed on the ring.

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