ATM TECHNOLOGY

Everyday the world seems to be moving at a faster & faster pace with new technol
ogical advances occurring constantly. In order to deliver new services such as v
ideo conferencing &video on demand, as well as providing more band width for the
increasing volume of traditional data, the communication industry introduce a t
echnology that provided a common format for services with different band width r
equirements. This technology is ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode).
Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is the cell relay protocol designed by the ATM
Forum and adopted by the ITU-T. The combination of ATM and B-ISDN will allow hig
h-speed interconnection of all the world’s networks.
Before there were computers that needed to be linked together to share resources
and communicate, telephone companies built an international network to carry te
lephone calls. Primarily, these networks works on copper cables .As time passed
,the limitations of copper cables became apparent and these wan carriers began
looking into upgrading there copper cables to fiber cable.
POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) and Telex uses the old circuit switched netwo
rk. Each of the new data services such as SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Servi
ce) and frame relay uses its own packet switching network. DQDB (distributed que
ue dual bus) is also another network. Maintaining all these separate networks is
even a major headache. The perceived solution is to invent a single new network
for the future that will replace the entire telephone system and all networks w
ith a single integrated network for all kinds of information transfer. This is n
ot a small project, but it is now underway.
The new wide area service is called B-ISDN (Broadband Integrated Services Digita
l Network). It will offer video on demand, live television, full motion multimed
ia E-mail, cd-quality music, LAN interconnection, high speed data transport and
many other services, all over the telephone line.

WHAT’S ATM:

WORLD’S MOST WIDELY DEPLOYED BACKBONE TECHNOLOGY

THE TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES B-ISDN POSSIBLE WHICH OFFERS :
a) VIDEO ON DEMAND .
b) LIVE TELEVISION FROM MANY RESOURCES .
c) FULL MOTION MULTIMEDIA E-MAIL .
d) LANE INTERCONNECTION .
e) HIGH SPEED DATA TRANSFER , ETC .
BOTH A TECHNOLOGY AND POTENTIALLY A SERVICE .
BEST KNOWN FOR :
1) ITS EASY INTEGERATION WITH OTHER
TECHNOLOGY .
2) GAURANTEED QUALITY OF SERVICE.
CELL DELIVERY IS NOT GUARANTEED, BUT THEIR ORDER IS.
The underline technology that makes B-ISDN possible is called ATM because it’s not
synchronous, as most long distance telephone lines are.
The basic idea behind ATM is to transmit all information in small, fixed size pa
ckets called cells. The cells are 53 bytes long, of which 5 bytes are header and
48 bytes are pay load, as shown in fig.

Bytes: 5 48
Header
user data

FIG: An ATM cell

ATM is both a technology and potentially a service .The use of cell switching te
chnology is a big break with the old tradition in the circuit switching.
ATM networks are connection oriented. Cell delivery is not guaranteed, but there
order is. The intended speed for atm networks is 155 Mbps and 622Mbps with the
possibility of gigabit speeds later.
The 155 Mbps speed – to transmit high definition television.
155.52 Mbps speed – for compatibility with AT&T’S SONET transmission systems.
622Mbps speed – four 155Mbps channels could be sent over it.
By now it should be clear why some of the gigabit text beds operated at 622Mbps:
they used atm.

B-ISDN ATM Reference Model

Broadband ISDN using AYM has its own reference model.
This model is shown in fig . Below. It consists of three layers,
The Physical layer
Atm layer
Atm adaptation layer (AAL), plus whatever the users want to put on the top of th
at.

Physical Layer
The Physical layer deals with physical medium : voltages , bit timing and varie
s issues. Atm has been designed to be independent of the transmission medium. Th
e physical layer defines the transmission medium, bit transmission, encoding, an
d electrical to optical transformation. It provides convergence with physical tr
ansport prrtocols, such as SONET and T-3, as well as the mechanisms for transfor
ming the flow of cells into a flow of bits. The transport medium can be twisted-
pair, coaxial, or fiber-optic cable(although the speed necessary to support B-IS
DN is unlikely to be achieved with twisted-pair cable).

FIG: B-ISDN ATM Reference Model

ATM Layer
The ATM layer deals with cells and cell transport . It defines the cell layout a
nd tells what the header fields mean. It also deals with establishment and relea
se of virtual circuit’s .The congestion control is also located here.The ATM layer
provides routing, traffic management, switching, and multiplexing services.It p
rocesses outgoing traffic by accepting 48-byte segments from the AAL sublayers a
nd transforming them into 53-byte cells by the addition of a 5-byte header.

AAL Layer
AAL allows users to send packets larger that the cell. The atm interface segmen
ts these packets, transmits the cell individually, and reassembles them at the o
ther end. The user plane deals with data transport, flow control, error correcti
on, and other user functions. The control plane is concerned with connection man
agement. The AAL allows existing networks to connect to ATM facilities. AAL prot
ocols accept transmissions from upper-layer services and map them into fixed-siz
ed ATM cells.
AAL is actually two layers:
• The Convergence sublayer
• The Segmentation and reassembly sublayer

Categories of AAL:
• AAL1
AAL1 supports applications that transfer information at constant bit rates, such
as video, and allows ATM to connect existing digital telephone networks such as
DS-3 or E-1.
• AAL2
AAL2 is intended to support variable bit-rate applications.
• AAL3/4
AAL3 was intended to support connection-oriented data services and AAL4 to suppo
rt connectionless services. They have therefore been combined into a single form
at called AAL3/4.

• AAL5
AAL5 assumes that all cells belonging to a single message travel sequentially an
d that the rest of the functions usually provided by the CS and SAR headers are
already included in the upper layers of the sending applications.It provides no
addressing, sequencing, or other header information either at the CS or SAR.

SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

How does ATM fit in the telecommunications infrastructure?
A telecommunications network is designed in a series of layers. A typical config
uration may have utilized a mix of time division multiplexing, Frame Relay, ATM
and/or IP. Within a network, carriers often extend the characteristic strengths
of ATM by blending it other technologies, such as ATM over SONET/SDH or DSL over
ATM. By doing so, they extend the management features of ATM to other platforms
in a very cost-effective manner.
ATM itself consists of a series of layers. The first layer - known as the adapta
tion layer - holds the bulk of the transmission. This 48-byte payload divides th
e data into different types. The ATM layer contains five bytes of additional inf
ormation, referred to as overhead. This section directs the transmission. Lastly
, the physical layer attaches the electrical elements and network interfaces.

How is ATM used as the backbone for other networks?

The vast majority (roughly 80 percent) of the world s carriers use ATM in the co
re of their networks. ATM has been widely adopted because of its unmatched flexi
bility in supporting the broadest array of technologies, including DSL, IP Ether
net, Frame Relay, SONET/SDH and wireless platforms. It also acts a unique bridge
between legacy equipment and the new generation of operating systems and platfo
rms. ATM freely and easily communicates with both, allowing carriers to maximize
their infrastructure investment.

ATM Applications :
ATM in the LAN (Local Area Network)
The LAN environment of a campus or building appears sheltered from the headaches
associated with high-volumes of traffic that deluge larger networks. But the ch
anges of LAN interconnection and performance are no less critical.
The ATM/LAN relationship recently took a giant step forward when a prominent U.S
. vendor announced a patent for its approach to extending ATM s quality of servi
ce to the LAN. The filing signals another birth in a long lineage of application
s that prove the staying power and adaptability of ATM.
ATM is a proven technology that is now in its fourth generation of switches. Its
maturity alone is not its greatest asset. Its strength is in its ability to ant
icipate the market and quickly respond, doing so with the full confidence of the
industry behind it.

ATM in the WAN (Wide Area Network)

A blend of ATM, IP and Ethernet options abound in the wide area network. But no
other technology can replicate ATM s mix of universal support and enviable manag
ement features. Carriers inevitably turn to ATM when they need high-speed transp
ort in the core coupled with the security of a guaranteed level of quality of se
rvice. When those same carriers expand to the WAN, the vast majority does so wit
h an ATM layer.
Distance can be a problem for some high-speed platforms. Not so with ATM. The in
tegrity of the transport signal is maintained even when different kinds of traff
ic are traversing the same network. And because of its ability to scale up to OC
-48, different services can be offered at varying speeds and at a range of perfo
rmance levels.
ATM in the MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
The MAN is one of the hottest growing areas in data and telecommunications. Traf
fic may not travel more than a few miles within a MAN, but it s generally doing
so over leading edge technologies and at faster-than-lightening speeds.
The typical MAN configuration is a point of convergence for many different types
of traffic that are generated by many different sources. The beauty of ATM in t
he MAN is that it easily accommodates these divergent transmissions, often times
bridging legacy equipment with ultra high-speed networks. Today, ATM scales for
m T-1 to OC-48 at speeds that average 2.5 Gb/s in operation, 10 Gb/s in limited
use and spanning up to 40 Gb/s in trials.

DISADVANTAGES:

• THIS IS NOT A SMALL PROJECT.

• ITS HARD TO REPLACE 100-YEAR OLD TECHNOLOGY.
• MASSIVE INVESTMENT.
Coverage of the topic:
ATM Technology
What’s ATM
History of ATM Technology
B-ISDN ATM Reference Model
ATM Applications

M.M INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

A
SEMINAR REPORT
ON
“Asynchronous Transfer Mode”

SUBMITTED TO: SUMITTED BY:

MR. SUMIT MITTAL (HOD) Sumit Goel
MRS.SONIA GIRDHAR MCA-1ST (2NDSEM)
SEC
TION-A
RO
LLNO-2506

COMPARISON OF SERVICES

Issue DQDB SMDS X.25 Frame

Relay ATM
AAL
Connection oriented Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Normal speed(Mbps) 45 45 64 1.5 155
Switched No Yes Yes No Yes
Fixed-size payload Yes No No No No
Max payload 44 9188 128 1600 Variable
Multicasting No Yes No No Yes