Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

Formed in May of 1990, the FDDI Consortium examined the Physical, Media Access Control and driver layers of the ANSI X3T12 Fiber Distributed Data Interface Protocol, both copper and fiber versions. Test offerings covered the areas of Physical Media Dependent (PMD), Physical Layer (PHY), Station Management (SMT), and Media Access Control (MAC), protocol conformance and interoperability, as well as Internet Protocol over FDDI, Ethernet Bridging over FDDI, and Stress Functionality.

FDDI was the first LAN technology to offer 100Mbps data rates. As such it was widely deployed as a backbone network technology throughout the early 1990s. The distance capabilities and fault-tolerance of FDDI ensured that it was a viable choice long after competing technologies had reached the same data rates.

Because of FDDI's PHY layer similarities to Fast Ethernet (IEEE 802.3u), many of the test tools and methodologies used in testing FDDI were modified and adapted to create the UNH-IOL's initial Fast Ethernet test offerings. This allowed the UNH-IOL to ramp up its Fast Ethernet Consortium's testing program in a very short period of time.

Having served more than 70 member companies during its lifetime, the FDDI Consortium was officially closed in November of 2000, not long after production of FDDI chipsets ceased. Please contact us if you have any questions about this or any other consortium or technology.