NETWORKS THAT WORK

	Chuck Thacker, Digital Equipment Corporation

	With the convergence of computing, communications, and
	media, local- and wide-area networks are becoming increasingly
	stressed.  The usual result of such stress is surprise -- the 
	network stops working.  

	For the last decade, Digital's Systems Research Center has
	been engaged in networking research.  The results of this work
	are the AN1 and AN2 networks. AN1 is a packet-switched network
	with active switches and point-to-point links.  AN2 is an ATM
	network, with a few twists.  The primary design goal for both
	networks is that they should actually work.  In this talk, I'll
	describe AN1 and AN2, with emphasis on the mechanisms that
	make them work.

	Bio:

	Chuck Thacker has spent twelve years at Digital, 13 years at Xerox
	Parc, and a few years at a couple of startups.  He has built a lot
	of computers, and is a co-inventor of Ethernet.  He is a Fellow of 
	the ACM, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.