Who Still Uses Token Ring?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Is token ring a dinosaur fading into extinction or are there still specialty networking environments where it still thrives? I seem to remember one of my former instructors saying that it's still popular in manufacturing environments were timing is especially important. I'm looking for some specific examples. Thanks, gang.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

My only experience of it, Trip, was a couple of years back, when my main Mentor-guy took me to one of his sites (he works for an out-sourcing IT firm) of a major brewery (I'd best not name names)

They were fully Token-ring, and as far as I could tell, it was mostly for a sort of office environment (3 server rooms) - the place was only one of their delivery depots, not an actual manufacturing plant.

I know they've upgraded to W2k, but I never heard my mate mentioning a change to a different topology, which he would surely have let me know about.

So, in short, I can be of completely no assistance to you !

 

I only worked with it on one job in the mid 90's, that was in a Bakery but I don't think the manufacturing environment had any bearing on the choice of network. I think it was more to do with speed, at the time it could run at 16 mbps where ethernet was only 10. Now you can get gigabit ethernet to the desktop if you're willing to pay for it I think token ring has long been surpassed. I haven't heard of it being used for a long time.

 

We have Gigabit network cards in all the new machines at work and a Gigabit switch in the server room

 

So far, what I've encountered is that people use TR because TR has been there for awhile and either they have no reason to switch to Ethernet or they just haven't gotten around to it. What I'm trying to find out is if there is a niche market for TR? So far I haven't found one and it's possible it doesn't exist. In that case, people still write about and teach TR just because it's a legacy network topology that's still out there to be found. Kind of like Thicknet and Thinnet.

 

Not that I was aware of, but then I drive a fruit van !!!

 

I managed to find out that TR has "predictable commmunications timing where Ethernet does not" and it also has "built-in management and sensing features which Ethernet lacks". Used when timing is critical in real-time manufacturing. Nevertheless, with the popularity of Ethernet, even in these environment, TR will eventually disappear from the landscape. See what you can learn if you ask around enough?

 

Token Ring networks came out in the late 80's, pushed by mostly by IBM.
As it's name implies, a token is passed around the network. When the token comes to your TR card, you attach a packet to it and it goes round the ring until it gets to its destination TR card. TR is far costlier now than Ethernet. I've seen TR networks at water boards, county councils, High street food chains, etc..

 

Hi seankav. Nice to meet you. You must have searched certforums far and wide to dig up this "dinosaur". I originally asked it when I was writing an Instructor's Manual for the text Guide to TCP/IP 2nd ed. I had recalled that certain industries like manufacturing that needed to control automated devices used TR because its timing was more exact than Ethernet. I couldn't find the documentation to back it up, so I thought I'd ask my peers and more knowledgable folks her on the forum if they could lend a hand.

Glad you posted, seankav. Be sure to stop by the New Members Forum and introduce yourself to the gang.

 

I know this posts an oldie but ill post my piece

TR is still used in some major banks and insurance companies, mainly in the more archaic of thier server farms/mainframe setups, although many upgraded to FDDI (uses token ring protocol) they still use that over ethernet (and appreciate the redundancy)

I wouldnt say token ring is still deployed anywhere, I believe a year or so ago even IBM ceased using it
Although I have heard of FDDI still being deployed in certain setups. which is a similar technology (same protocol, added features)

were not talking token ring to the desktop here, it would be horrendous to support in any sort of large environment because of the very topology that makes it popular in server / mainframe environments