text: One further advantage that ARCNET enjoyed over collision-based Ethernet is that it guarantees equitable access to the bus by everyone on the network. Although it might take a short time to get the token depending on the number of nodes and the size of the messages currently being sent about, you will always receive it within a predictable maximum time; thus it is deterministic. This made ARCNET an ideal real-time networking system, which explains its use in the embedded systems and process control markets. Token Ring has similar qualities, but is much more expensive to implement than ARCNET.
  In spite of ARCNET's deterministic operation and historic suitability for real-time environments such as process control, the general availability of switched gigabit Ethernet and Quality of service capabilities in Ethernet switches has all but eliminated ARCNET today.
  At first the system was deployed using RG-62/U coaxial cable (commonly used in IBM mainframe environments to connect 3270 terminals and controllers), but later added support for twisted pair and fibre media. At ARCNET's lower speeds (), Cat-3 cable is good enough to run ARCNET. Some ARCNET twisted-pair products supported cable runs over  on standard Cat-3 cable, far beyond anything Ethernet could do on any kind of copper cable.
  In the early 1990s, Thomas-Conrad Corporation developed a  topology called TCNS based on the ARCNET protocol, which also supported RG-62, twisted-pair, and fiber optic media. TCNS enjoyed some success until the availability of lower-cost  Ethernet put an end to the general deployment of ARCNET as a LAN protocol.
  However, because of its simple, robust nature, ARCNET controllers are still sold and used in industrial, embedded, and automotive applications.