"This final draft European Telecommunication Standard (ETS) describes the basic principles and network architecture for an European Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). This final draft ETS defines and describes the MAN reference configuration and the functional blocks between the Customer Network (CN) and the MAN Switching System (MSS)@ which is described in Annex A (informative). In addition@ this final draft ETS defines the protocol reference model for MANs@ and is the basis for the development of companion ETSs related to MAN protocols (ETS 300 212 to ETS 300 216@ [19] to [23]@ inclusive). General aspects of MAN management are also defined in this final draft ETS. The MAN definition takes into account the final goal of providing an easy integration with Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). The protocol chosen as the basis for this ETS is the IEEE Standard 802.6 [1] ""Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) Subnetwork of a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)"". The specification of performance figures is outside the scope of this final draft ETS."