Ether to Ether via T1 Microwave

[John M. Sullivan]

(I am posting this note for a friend.	-- John Sullivan, sullivan at harvard)

I am about to ask the apocalyptic question, "How do I connect two
ethernets via microwave link?" so if you're not interested, now's the
time to skip the rest of this note.

I'm peripherally involved in a networking project that ultimately may
need to connect two distant ethernets by way of a microwave link.
Assuming that I have two bi-directional microwave towers pointed at
each other and running T1, I need some kind of magic to mediate
between each end of the T1 link and the respective ethernets.
Differences in transmission speeds are inevitably going to require
*some* kind of flow control.  I am ignorant about the issues involved,
as will be demonstrated by the explicit and implicit questions in the
paragraphs that follow.  I will be grateful for any suggestions,
advice, or referrals, from anyone.

Here are some ideas for the T1<->ether mediating magic.  One possibility
I've heard about is a card from ACC which plugs into a VAX and transforms
T1 into something understandable.  (Does anyone have any details on this
card?)  However, this solution inevitably requires two hosts, each of which
will experience a hefty CPU burden.

Another possibility is some kind of host-based flow control scheme
using a couple of cheapie hosts (visuals, isi optimums, ibm pcs,
whatever).  What kind of hardware and software would be required for
this solution?

Yet another idea (my favorite) is to use some kind of bridge device on
either end of the T1 link.  Such a box would plug directly into the
arpanet, and squirt 10megabit ether packets to/from the T1 radios.
Apparently, Bridge manufactures a similar product (called a "bridge"),
but it translates ether to a protocol at 1Mhz (perhaps for twisted
pair?).  Unfortunately, T1 runs at 1.544Mhz.  Has anyone heard of a
T1<->ether bridge?  The big advantages of this scheme are:  no
software overhead, no host overhead, more-or-less off-the-shelf
hardware throughout the entire ether<->ether link, direct plug-in to
the ethernet.

Comments, other possible solutions, etc., are all welcome.  I will
summarize whatever I get from the net and re-post them for those people
who express an interest in reading the results.

Please post letters directly to alan at harvard.{arpa,uucp,bitnet} or to
sullivan at harvard; unfortunately, I don't have direct access to net
news (my mail is forwarded).

My thanks to all those who waded through my verbiage, and my special
thanks to those of you who see fit to reply.

Al

-----
Alan Langerman
alan at harvard.{arpa,bitnet,uucp}
-- 
John M. Sullivan
sullivan at harvard