User`s guide

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Chapter 1
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of RingView functionality and features.
What Is RingView?
RingView for FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) is a SPECTRUM
application program that provides enhanced capabilties for modeling and
displaying the ring of devices and connections that make up an FDDI LAN.
An important feature of the RingView application is that it allows for several
different ways of displaying these FDDI nodes within a SPECTRUM Topology
view. For example, you can choose to view the topology of the ring in either a
“Ring of Trees” arrangement or in “Token Order.” The “Ring of Trees”
option essentially displays the physical configuration of the ring, as in
Figure 1-1, where concentrators and/or workstations (referred to as “end
nodes”) cascade from a series of concentrators (“rooted” nodes) that are
attached directly to a dual counter-rotating ring of the fiber medium. The
“Token Order” option provides a logical view of the ring, in which all nodes are
arranged in a single ring showing the actual order in which the token is
passed (Figure 1-2).