What is the maximum distance between a MAU and a token ring station, or between two token ring stations?
In token ring networking, distance requirements are different from vendor to vendor. In general terms, the recommended standard distance between stations for Type 1 cabling is approximately 300 meters, and the recommended standard distance between stations for UTP cabling is about 150 meters. Token ring distances are computed as the distance between repeaters. IN a token ring network, each Network Interface Card (NIC) is a repeater. Therefore, the length between stations cannot exceed the cable lengths listed above. Some manufacturers use ‘active’ MAUs which can regenerate the token ring signal and act as a repeater. In these cases, the distances between the token ring workstations and the MAUs can be much larger than many ‘passive’ MAUs. Many active MAUs have other network management features such as SNMP capabilities and auto-station removal for stations inserting at the incorrect speeds.
