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Reference:
[Link]
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[Link]
Networking and Integration of Facilities Automation Systems, Chapter 4

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Attached Resource Computer NETwork (ARCnet) was founded by the Datapoint Corporation in
late 1970s
ARCnet was one of the topologies used early on networking and is rarely used as the topology of
choice in current LAN environments. ARCnet, however, still is a solid, functional and costeffective means of networking.
Each device on an ARCnet network is assigned a node number. This number must be unique on
each network and in the range of 1 to 255.
ARCnet manages network access with a token passing bus mechanism. The token (permission to
speak on the network) is passed from the lowest number node to higher number nodes in
ascending order. Lower numbered addresses get the token before the higher numbered addresses.
Network traffic is made more efficient by assigning sequential numbers to nodes using the same
order in which they are cabled. Choosing random numbers can create a situation in which a node
numbered 23 can be a whole building away from the next number, 46, but in the same room as
numbers 112 and 142. The token has to travel in a haphazard manner that is less effective than if
you numbered the three workstations in the same office sequentially, 46, 47, and 48, and the
workstation in the other building 112. With this configuration, the packet stays within the office
before venturing on to other stations.
A maximum time limit of 31 microseconds is allotted for an ARCnet signal. This is also called a
time-out setting. Signals on an ARCnet can travel up to 20,000 feet during the 31
microsecond default time-out period. You can sometimes extend the range of an ARCnet by
increasing the time out value. However, 20,000 feet is the distance at which ARCnet signals begin
to seriously degrade. Extending the network beyond that distance can result in unreliable or failed
communication. Therefore, the time-out parameter and cabling distance recommendations should
be increased only with great caution.

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An ARCnet network is used primarily with either coax or twisted pair cable. Most older
ARCnet installations are coax and use RG-62 A/U type cable terminated with 93 Ohm
terminators. Twisted pair (UTP) installations are newer and use stranded 24 or 26 gauge wire,
or solid core 22, 24, or 26 gauge type cable terminated with 100 Ohm terminators. Many
ARCnet networks use a mix of both coax and UTP cabling. UTP cable is simple to install and
provides a reliable connection to the devices, whereas coax provides a means to span longer
distances.

Typical ARCnet installations are wired as a star. ARCnet can run off a linear bus topology
using coax or twisted pair as long as the cards specifically support BUS. The most popular
star-wired installations of ARCnet run off two types of hubs:

1.

Passive hubs cannot amplify signals. Each hub has four connectors. Because of the
characteristics of passive hubs, unused ports must be equipped with a terminator, a
connector containing a resistor that matches the ARCnet cabling characteristics. A
port on a passive hub can only connect to an active device (an active hub or an
ARCnet device). Passive hubs can never be connected to passive hubs.

2.

Active hubs have active electronics that amplify signals and split them to multiple
ports. The number of ports on an active hub varies with the manufacturer, but eight
is typical. A port on an active hub can be connected to a port on another active
device (such as another active hub or an ARCnet device) or to a passive hub.

One of the greatest flexibilities of ARCnet is that you can integrate connections from active
hubs to a linear bus connection as long as you terminate at the last connection point.

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In cabling ARCnet networks with coax cable, you must follow several rules:
1. Never connect a passive hub to another passive hub directly.
2. Passive hubs should never be used to connect two active hubs.
3. Passive hubs are only used to connect an active hub and a node.
4. Unused connectors on active hubs do not need to be terminated.
5. Unused connectors on passive hubs must be terminated using a 93
Ohm terminator.

The figure above shows an ARCnet configuration using active and passive
hubs. Active hubs are required to extend the network for long distances and to
configure networks that have more than four nodes. Passive hubs are used as
an economical means of splitting a port on an active hub to support three
devices.

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Duplicate addresses: No more than one node can have a given node address on
the same network. If two or more nodes share an address, one of the two
workstations will either lose its network connection or will not be able to find a
network.
Missing terminators: Missing terminators may not present visible problems on a
small network. Missing terminators cause data retransmits on smaller systems,
eventually appearing as transmit time out errors or network errors.
Using a terminator with an incorrect rating: Coax uses 93 Ohm; UTP must use
100 Ohm terminators. A terminator's value in ohms depends on the impedance of
the cable. The cable's impedance and the terminator's value should always match.
Failed network interface
Failed active hubs (or a port on that hub)
Cable lengths that exceed specifications: Twisted pair, cabled in a bus rather
than a star, cannot have more than ten devices per segment. This number varies
with different manufacturers. ARCnet UTP installed in a bus configuration is
generally used only in very small networks of six nodes or less. This
configuration has the major drawback of halting the network if a single cable is
disconnected. In an ARCnet bus configuration, the network must be brought
down to make any changes or service to the ARCnet interface cards.
Coax connector not built and/or crimped correctly: Twist-on connectors are
responsible for more intermittent errors on a network than most other failures
because of their design.

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ARCnet was originally developed for office automation network in the late 1970s.

Its use as an office automation has diminished; however, ARCnet continues to find success in
the field level automation industry because its robustness, deterministic performance and long
cable distances.

ARCnet ANSI/ATA 878.1 standard was developed by the ARCnet Trade Association (ATA)
and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1992.

ARCnet Standard:

1.

ANSI/ATA 878.1 - This standard defines the frame format, medium access, services,
active hub operation, and the physical layer functions and connectors for a token bus
LAN operating at 2.5 Mbps.

2.

ANSI/ATA 878.1-1999 Broaden the 878.1 standard to include alternate physical

layers such as fiber optics and EIA-485 communications as well as alternate data
rates.

3.

ATA 878.2 (Draft) - This standard defines the method and the frame formats by
which a block of data can be transferred utilizing ARCNET independent of the
number of octets in the block of data. The standard defines a protocol by which data
can be fragmented into one or more ARCNET frames and re-assembled at the
receiving station.

4.

ATA 878.3 (Draft) - This protocol encapsulation standard defines a method to embed
or encapsulate an existing protocol onto an ATA 878 (ARCNET) network. This
standard allows devices using RS-232, RS-422/485 point to point standards to
migrate upward to a high-speed network with multi-master capabilities.

Over the years, ARCnet has developed a large customer base for smaller LAN real-time
automation systems, including building automation and industrial controls systems. Its
success can be attributed to its high speed deterministic nature and its high reliability

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ARCnet is a data-link layer technology with no defined application layer

(i.e., defines two lower layers of the OSI model: data link and physical
layers)

The token-passing MAC defines five transmission types:

1. Invitation to transmit (ITT): the token
2. Free buffer enquiry (FBE): a query from the transmitting node to
destination node to check buffer availability
3. Data packet (PAC): the data transmitted between nodes (8 to 516
characters)
4. Positive acknowledgement (ACK): acknowledgement of recipient
5. Negative acknowledgement (NAK): of FBE and PAC from the
destination node

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ARCnet supports bus, star and tree (distributed star) topologies

Media support includes coax, TP, fibre

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Basic Symbol Units are the elements used to construct basic frames and reconfiguration bursts:
1.

<SD>Starting Delimiter (all ARCnet frames begin with this symbol unit)
1 1 1 1 1 1 (6 symbols)

2.

<RSU>Reconfiguration Symbol Unit

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 (9 symbols)

3.

<ISU>Information Symbol Unit (each information unit contains 8 bits of data and 3-bit
preamble)
1 1 0 d0 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 (11 symbols)

The data in <ISU> can be:

1.

<SOU>Start of Header 0x01 (used to identify a packet)

2.

<ENQ>Enquiry 0x85 (used to identify a request for a free buffer)

3.

<ACK>Acknowledgement 0x86 (used to identify acceptance)

4.

<NAK>Negative Acknowledgement 0x15 (used to identify non-acceptance)

5.

<EOT>End of Transmission 0x04 (used to identify a token pass to the logical neighbor)

6.

<NID>Next Node Identification 0x01 to 0xff (used to identify the next node in the token loop)

7.

<SID>Source Node Identification 0x01 to 0xff (used to identify the source node of a packet
transmission)

8.

<DID>Destination Node Identification 0x000 to 0xff (used to identify the destination node of
a transmission request or a packet transmission)

9.

<CP>Continuation Pointer 0x03 to 0xff (used to identify the length of packet.)

In short packet mode (0 to 252 bytes), the CP requires only one <ISU>.
In long packet mode (256 to 507 bytes), the CP requires two <ISU>.)

10. <SC>System Code 0x00 to 0xff (used to identify a high level protocol, the ATA has a list of
SC assignments)
11. <DATA>Data (the user data)
Packet with size of 253, 254 or 255 ISUs are called exception packets and must be
padded with null data and sent as a long packet
12. <FCS>Frame Check Sequence 0x00 to 0xffff (cyclic redundancy check CRC-16)

10

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A token is passed in an orderly fashion among all the active nodes in the
network

For example:
1. A network consisting of four active nodes addressed 6, 109, 122 and
255, connected in a star topology as shown above
2. Once the network is configured, the token is passed from one node to
the node with the next highest node address even though another node
is physically closer
3. All nodes have a logical neighbor and will continue to pass the token
to their neighbor in a logical ring fashion regardless of the physical
topology of the network, e.g., 6 109 122 255 6 -

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Directed Messages:
1. Source node, which has grabbed the token to talk, inquires if the
destination node is in a position to accept a transmission by sending
out a FBE.
2. The destination node responds by returning an ACK meaning that a
buffer is available or by returning a NAK meaning that no buffer is
available.
3. Upon an ACK, the source node sends out a PAC with either 0 to 507
bytes of data
4. If the data was properly received by the destination node, the
destination node sends another ACK. If the transmission was
unsuccessful, the destination node does nothing, causing the source
node to timeout. The source node will infer that transmission failed
and will retry after it receives the token on the next token pass
5. The token is passed to the next node

If the desired message exceeds 507 bytes, the message is sent as a series of
packets one packet every token pass. This is called a fragmented message.
The packets are recombined at the destination node to form the entire
message

12

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ARCnet supports a broadcast message, which is an unacknowledged message to

all nodes.
Nodes that have been enabled to received broadcast messages will receive a
message that specifies node 0 as the destination address.
Node 0 does not exist on the network and is reserved for broadcast function
No ACKs or NAKs are sent during a broadcast message making broadcast
messaging fast

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ARCnet is able to reconfigure the network automatically if a node is either added to or deleted
from the network. This reconfiguration process is automatic and quick without any software
intervention.
If a node joins the network, it does not automatically participate in the token-passing sequence.
Once a node notices that it is never granted the token, it will jam the network with a
reconfiguration burst that destroys the token-passing sequence. Once the token is lost, all nodes
will cease transmitting and begin a timeout sequence based upon their own node address. The
node with the highest address will timeout first and begin a token pass sequence to the node with
the next highest address. If that node does not respond, it is assumed not to exist. The destination
node address is incremented and the token resent. This process is repeated until a node responds.
At that time, the token is released to the responding node and the address of the responding node
is noted as the logical neighbor of the originating node. The process is repeated by all nodes until
each node learns its logical neighbor. At that time the token passes from neighbor to neighbor
without wasting time on absent addresses.
RECON Reconfiguration Burst <RSU><RSU><RSU> 765 RSUs
If a node is unplugged from the network the reconfiguration sequence is slightly different. When
a node releases the token to its logical neighbor, it continues to monitor network activity to ensure
that the logical neighbor responded with either a token pass or a start of a transmission sequence.
If no activity was sensed, the node that passed the token infers that its logical neighbor has left the
network and immediately begins a search for a new logical neighbor by incrementing the node
address of its logical neighbor and initiating a token pass. Network activity is again monitored and
the incrementing process and resending of the token continues until a new logical neighbor is
found. Once found, the network returns to the normal logical ring routine of passing tokens to
logical neighbors.

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