The predominant network technology at that time was 10Base2 or 10Base5 Ethernet, providing a CSMA/CD shared media topology that delivered a 10Mbps data path. This arrangement, in fact, provided variable bandwidth and latency depending upon the volume of network traffic.

The issue of redundancy, variable latency and available bandwidth prevented the use of Ethernet in many time critical or mission critical applications and was thus the impetus for FDDI development. By using dual, contra-rotating, fibre optic rings and token passing, FDDI could address all of the issues presented by Ethernet.