In this thesis, the design and performance issues of a protocol for a dynamic hierarchical local area network are addressed. The dynamic hierarchy is an extension of the static hierarchical topology with the exception that the apex node can vary among a prescribed set of candidates. A simulation model is used to evaluate the benefits of dynamic apex transition under the proposed protocol. The design also considers routing and queue structures of the nodal functions corresponding to the transport/network layers of the ISO model. The model experimentation shows that dynamic hierarchy networks are advantageous, under an environment where different network traffic patterns exist at different points of time, over static hierarchy networks. Critical to the conclusion is that the amount of time taken to effect a transition is kept minimal. / M.S.