The purpose of this protocol is to provide a higher speed LAN with deterministic access, priority, and optional filtering. Pursuant to this, the protocol will a) Provide a minimum data rate of 100 Mb/s. b) Provide smooth migration from ISO/IEC 8802-3 and ISO/IEC 8802-5 LANs. c) Support either ISO/IEC 8802-3 or ISO/IEC 8802-5 frame format and MAC service interface to the LLC. d) Support a cascaded star topology over twisted pair and fibre-optic generic building wiring. e) Allow topologies of 2.5 km and greater with three levels of cascading. f) Provide a Physical Layer Bit Error Rate (BER) of less than 10-8. g) Provide fair access and bounded latency. h) Provide two priority levels: normal and high. i) Provide a low-latency service through high priority for support of multimedia applications over extended networks. j) Support an option for filtering individually addressed packets at the repeater to enhance privacy. k) Support network management to monitor network performance, isolate faults, and control network configuration. l) Enable low-cost implementation and high levels of integration. m) Provide for robust operation by testing the Physical Layer connection before allowing an end node to enter the network, and by removing disruptive nodes. n) Support an option for redundant links that will enable automatic recovery of network connectivity in case of link or repeater failure anywhere in the network path.