The
Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard was produced by the ANSI X3T9.5
standards committee in the mid-1980s. During this period, high-speed engineering
workstations were beginning to tax the capabilities of existing local-area networks
(LANs) (primarily Ethernet and Token Ring). A new LAN was needed that could easily
support these workstations and their new distributed applications. At the same
time, netwok reliability was becoming an increasingly important issue as system
managers began to migrate mission-critical applications from large computers to
networks. FDDI was developed to fill these needs.After
completing the FDDI specification, ANSI submitted FDDI to the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO). ISO has created an international version of FDDI that
is completely compatible with the ANSI standard version.
Today, although FDDI
implementations are not as common as Ethernet or Token Ring, FDDI has gained a
substantial following that continues to increase as the cost of FDDI interfaces
diminishes.FDDI is frequently used as a backbone technology as well as a means
to connect high-speed computers in a local area.
