Abstract

The demands for the communication of data and internet in todays business environment are springing up every day. The applications having high-bandwidth like video conferencing and graphics applications calls for efficient and fast transfer of data. Todays networks are running out of bandwidth. The network users are invariably calling for more bandwidth than their network is capable of. It was 1980s when the researchers in the telecommunications company started to look into the other technologies for the following generation of high speed transfer of data, voice and video and for the development of broadband ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) was developed as the result of this research. Unlike Ethernet, Token ring and FDDI, ATM is a different recent technology, capable of transferring data, voice and video simultaneously over the same line. For todays incorporated network system, it has become one of the most promising solutions. This project gives you the comprehensive overview of an ATM including its architecture, reference model, present status on the management of traffic and new developments like MPLS as well as the related technologies using the very ATM protocol.

Introduction ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is a recent intricate cell multiplexing and switching technology that is capable of transferring data, graphics, voice and data simultaneously in real time over the same line across LAN (Local Area Network), MAN and WAN. Due to its efficiency of use, it has become one of the most desirable technologies in todays world. So far as the speed of ATM is concerned, it can make up to 10 Gbps making it one of the fastest network protocol ever been used. The data in an ATM network in transferred in an asynchronous manner which entails that it can transfer data when it can. The term Asynchronous also cites to the fact that, in the circumstances of multiplexing transmission, cells which are allocated to the same connection may show an irregular form as they are filled on the basis of the actual requirements as shown in the below figure.

Fig: 1-Asynchronous and Synchronous Transfer Mode

ATM is an ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication) standard for cell relay where the informations regarding data; voices, graphics and video are showed in packets with small size called cells via switched based network. Based on the rising standards for B-ISDN, ATM converts all the incoming data into 53 bytes (5 header bytes and 48 bytes of data) cells. ATM technology can transfer various types of data in a real time over the same line which is because entire bandwidth is employed, as long as it is available. In case of other network technologies, they do not allow every bandwidth to be utilized once a specific function is initiated making it one of the fastest and efficient way for transferring data, graphics, video, pictures and even the live streaming video and audio. ATM is a connection oriented network technology in a sense that they should inform every switch about the traffic parameters and service requirements before communications between two systems in a network. Every connection in an ATM network is known as virtual channel or virtual circuit (VC). By determining the number of VCs, the connections let the network to guarantee QoS (Quality of Service). Here is the figure of private ATM and public ATM network conveying voice, video and data traffic

Fig: 2- A private and Public ATM conveying voice, video and data traffic

Basic Features of ATM Following are some of the basic features of ATM presented by ITU-T in I.150 recommendation: ATM technology employs fixed sized packets called cells. Each cell incorporates of a header and an information field, basically applied to find out the virtual channel and also to carry out the sound routing. Due to the way of ATM networks carrying voice traffic, simple fixed sized cells are used. ATM is a connection oriented network technology in a sense that they should inform every switch about the traffic parameters and service requirements before communications between two systems in a network. Separate virtual circuits are used to carry user information and signals. ATM cells, information fields are conveyed transparently via the network inside which no processing like error control are carried out. Every services like data, video and voice can be carried through ATM. Even the connectionless services. An adaptation function is furnished in order to adapt different services so that every services information is fit into ATM cells. The service

particular functions like cell loss recovery, clock recovery etc are possible only because of this adaptation function.

Some other magnificent principles of ATM are as follows: ATM is a high speed connection oriented network that employs fiber optics wire, switch with switched point to point connection and are connected to each other and to the end stations. In order to pass traffic amongst two positions, it makes use of the virtual networking concept. With ATM network, one is able to transfer a broad range of classes of services of multimedia like text, voice, video over a single network effectively. The high data transfer speed (155 Mbps, 622 Mbps and even 2.5 Gbps) supplied by the ATM network allows a high bandwidth distributed applications due to which the applications like video conferencing applications, applications using video on demand mechanisms are possible. Unlike Ethernet, ATM does not share a wire. When a wire is shared, it becomes overloaded since everybody uses it at the same time. However, in ATM, every computer is directly connected to a switch. It endorses both the basic approaches of switching amongst a single incorporated switching mechanism. This makes ATM suitable for every distributed applications generating CBR and VBR traffic. Benefits of ATM

High Quality of Service level (QoS)

Quality of Service (QoS)

In a networking concept, Quality of Service is a broad set of networking techniques, standards and technologies to manage network traffic in a cost-efficient way so that a high quality performance is ensured for the critical applications. The major purpose of

QoS is to enable the network administrators use the available resources effectively and assure the ability of network to give predictable results. For instance: QoS can be used in order to prioritize network traffic for latency sensitive softwares like video and voice applications. Delay (latency), error rate, uptime (availability) and throughput (bandwidth) are some of the elements associated with the quality of service. The networking technologies like Frame relay, ATM and even the primitive LAN technologies like token ring and Ethernet endorses the mechanisms of QoS.

Fig: 3- networking elements associated with QoS

QoS is one of the prominent features of ATM. It was projected to ameliorate QoS and usage on high traffic network. Fixed sized small cells and no routing makes network to manage bandwidth more easily than the primitive LAN technologies like Ethernet. Five broad service categories of ATM [CBR (Constant Bit Rate), VBR (Variable Bit Rate), ABR (Available Bit Rate), UBR (Unspecified Bit Rate), WUBR (Weighted Unspecified Bit Rate),] offer a fine control over the parameters of network traffic which are managed and requested.

The networks in ATM are more cost efficient. With ATM, you can use various applications on the same network making your administration, operation, materials and operation costs lower.

Flexibility

Various classes of service in order to carry data, voice and video over a single network are endorsed by the ATM networks. Moreover, ATM networks can allocate every connection to cope with the precise demand of every application. ATM networks are flexible in such a way that it can assure bandwidth from the desktop from DS-1 to OC-12 in the United States while E1, E3, OC-3 and DS-3 globally.

Scalability Projected to spring up with your endeavor as your demands and necessities, the ATM networks are able to connect to the networks of Frame relay and can also support it to ATM service internationally. Likewise, various speeds are available (DS3, DS1, OC3, NxDS1 and OC12). The good thing about the ATM technology is that the internetworking with Ethernet, broadband and frame relay can go smoothly.

Manageability

The homogeneous network surroundings of ATM plays significant role to improve the network reliability, flexibility and the performance. Also the carriers network management platform takes into account the higher manageability in reporting, troubleshooting and in many more.

Secure

The recovery of failure and the automatic configuration is possible in ATM networks.

Some other benefits of ATM are as follows: ATM networks offer high performance through switching of hardware. For high traffic, ATM can render you the dynamic bandwidth. Supports different classes of services needed for the purpose of multimedia (voice and video). The architecture of LAN and WAN are common in the ATM networks. In compliance with international standards. Like primitive telephony services, ATM technology is connection oriented. Simplified network architecture

ATM Standards ITU-T, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and the ATM forum are the three main groups responsible for determining the implementation standards for ATM network.

ITU-T The telecommunication standardization area of the ITU in 1988 developed some standards for the network in ATM technology. In fact, ATM was developed when the researchers in the very ITU Company were trying to find some solutions for B-ISDN. The main purpose of ITU-T is to define the standards for telecommunication services. The promising technologies like B-ISDN and SONET were developed by ITU-T.

Fig: some of the ITU-T recommendations associating to ATM

IETF IETF define the standards for the internet. The team of the IETF organization developed a number of standards for IP traffic over the networks in ATM. Below is the chart showing the lists of RFCs required for the implementation of IP over ATM.

Fig: 4 standards of IETF associating ATM.

ATM Forum Non-profit international team of ATM network software developers, hardware developers and network service providers, ATM Forum comprises of the working teams who develop and review the specifications of ATM technology. In order to use ATM over private and public networks, the standards of ATM defined by ITU-T organization were extended.

Fig: some of the specifications of ATM forum relating to ATM

ATM Applications There are various pragmatic applications using ATM technology. ATM is going to be the keystone network for various applications even for the information superhighway. Following are some of the notable applications using ATM technology. LANE (LAN emulation) Access to internet, intranet and extranet (e-mail, text imaging, forms processing) Video and desktop conferencing Communications of the multimedia Packetized video and voice VPI/WAN connectivity E-commerce LAN interconnection Web hosting ATM over satellite communications ATM over wireless mobile computing SNA (System Network Architecture) Terminal-host (client-server) data File transfer Remote access

ATM Devices and the Networking Environment ATM is a multiplexing and cell-switching connection oriented technology combing the advantages of both circuit switching and packet switching. It offers you the bandwidth of few Mbps and can even reach up to many Gbps. Due to the asynchronous nature of ATM, it is

more effective than the technologies with synchronous data transfer. TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) is the suitable example of synchronous technologies. In case of TDM, every user is allotted to a time slot. Other station cannot send in that time slot which is shown in the fig: 4. the station can send as much as data only if the time slot rises even if every time slots are free. To its contrary, if a station has not anything to send at the time when time slot rises, the very time slot has to be sent empty and become wasted.

Fig: 5- operation of normal TDM.

However, in the case of ATM, on demand with the information referring to the origin of the transmission held in the header of every ATM cell, time slots are available.

Fig: 6- ATM multiplexing in asynchronous way.

Figure 6 depicts the way of multiplexing the cells from 3 inputs. Input 2 does not have any data to transfer, so the slot is filled with a cell from third input which is done by multiplexer. Output slot becomes empty only after all the cells are multiplexed from input channel.

ATM Network Interfaces ATM network incorporates a set of central devices called ATM switches which are in point to point connection to each other. Two basic types of interfaces are supported by the ATM Switches. They are UNI (User Network Interface) and NNI (Network-Network Interface). The end systems of ATM like routers and hosts are connected to an ATM switch by the UNI while two ATM switches are connected by NNI. Depending on if the ATM switch is publicly owned or located at the client premises and functioned by the telephone organization, NNI and UNI can be sub grouped into private and public NNIs and UNIs. A private switch and an endpoint of ATM are connected by a private UNI while public UNIs links an endpoint of ATM or private switch to public switch. Within the same public organization, a public NNI links two switches of ATM while two ATM switches are connected amongst the very private organization are connected by the private NNI.

Fig: 7- ATM network interfaces in public and private networks.

ATM cell basic structure As we have already mentioned that ATM transfers every data and information in fixed sized small packets called ATM cells. Fixed sized small cells are used because they are more fitted to transmit video and voice traffic. ATM cell comprises cell header of 5-byte or octets and 48 bytes of user information also known as payload. In order to support the virtual channel routing and virtual path and to carry out the quick error check for cells which are corrupted, ATM network employs the header field.

Fig: ATM cell basic format

ATM cell header structure An ATM cell header is basically of two formats. They are NNI and UNI. In order to communicate between ATM switches, NNI header is used while UNI header is employed to communicate between ATM switches and ATM end points in ATM private network. So we can conclude header is used to communicate amongst ATM switches. Here is the figure showing you the basic ATM cell, UNI cell and NNI cell.

Fig: ATM cell, ATM UNI cell and ATM NNI cell

ATM cell header fields Including VPI (Virtual Path Identifier) and GFC (Generic Flow control) header fields, various other fields are employed in ATM cell header fields. Following are some of them which will summarize the ATM cell header fields show in the above figure. Virtual Path Identifier (VPI)

8 bits of VPI is in conjunction with the header field VCI. As it passes through ATM switches on the path to its destination, it determines the coming destination of a cell.

Generic Flow control (GFC) 4bits of GFC major function is to determine multiple stations sharing the same ATM interface.GFC is generally not in use and its value is put to a default value.

Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) 16 bits of VCI is in conjunction with the header field VPI and does the same function like that of VPI.

Congestion Loss Priority (CLP) 1 bit of this header field shows if the ATM cell has to be cast away when there is utmost congestion as it passes via the network. The cells with the CLP bit 1should be discarded in preference to the cell having CLP bit 0.

Payload Type (PL) 3 bits of his header fields of ATM cell shows in the first bit if it consists of control data or user data. The second bit shows over crowding when the cell consist user data and the third bit points if the cell in a series is last representing a single frame of AAL5.

Header Error Control (HEC) On the header itself, 4 bits of this header field of ATM cell estimates the checksum.

ATM Reference Model Based on the standards established by the ITU-T, ATM reference model or B-ISDN protocol reference model main purpose is to clear up the functions performed by the ATM networks by teaming them into a function specific, interrelated set of planes and layers. The ATM reference model incorporates the following planes. They are control plane, user plane and management plane. Control plane This plane generates and manages requests of signaling.

User plane Transfer of data is managed by this plane

Management plane This plane is again sub grouped into two components. They are:

Layer management is responsible for the layer specific tasks like detecting failures and the problems of protocol. Plane management is responsible for managing and coordinating the functions associated to the whole system.

ATM reference model incorporates the following three layers: Physical layer Correspondent to the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model, Physical layer, the physical layer of ATM is responsible for managing the medium-dependent transmission. . ATM layer Joined with the adaptation layer of the ATM reference model, ATM layer slightly corresponds with the OSI model, data link layer. The major function of ATM layer is

to establish connections and to pass cells via the ATM network. To perform this, it employs information in the header of every cell.

ATM Adaptation layer (AAL) Joined with the ATM layer of ATM reference model, ATM adaptation layer is slightly analogous to the data link layer of the OSI reference model. The main function of this layer is to isolate the protocols of the higher layer from the details of the ATM processes.

Here is the figure illustrating the ATM protocol reference model.

Fig: relating ATM reference model with the lowest two layers of the OSI reference model.

Now, lets study above three layers of the ATM reference model in detail.

ATM Physical layer Following are the major functions of the ATM physical layer. To convert cells into a stream of bit. To control the transfer and the receipt of bits on the physical media. To track the boundaries of ATM cell. ATM Cells are bundled into the appropriate frame types required for the physical device. The ATM physical layer is further divided into two types: they are PMD (Physical-mediumdependant) and TC (Transmission convergence) sub layer. PMD Following are the main functions of PMD sub layer. It is responsible for synchronizing reception and transmission by sending and receiving bits flowing continuously with related information of timing. For the physical medium employed, it fixes the physical medium including cable and connector. SONET/SDH, DS-3/E3, 155 Mbps over STP cable and 155 Mbps over MMF (Multimode Fiber) with 8B/10B encoding schemes are some of the examples of the physical medium standards. TC

Following are the main functions of TC sub layer. Responsible for maintaining boundaries of an ATM cell, allowing physical medium to position cells amongst a bit stream. This is also known as cell delineation. Responsible for checking and generating header error control code to check data which are valid. Transmission frame adaptation bundles the acceptable frame into the specific implementation of the physical layer. Cell rate decoupling means the maintaining of synchronization.

ATM Adaptation Layer The main function of this layer is to support four service classes and to allow available applications like CBR video and protocols like IP to run on top of ATM as shown in the below figure.

Fig: AAL layer is only located at the edges of ATM network. This very layer is only applied at the end point of an ATM network which either could be an IP router or the host system. In this case, you can say its being analogous to the transport layer situated in the internet protocol stack.

The ATM standards like ITU-T and ATM forum has presented some of the AAL standards some of the crucial AALs endorsed by the above standardization of AAL are as follows: AAL 1: For constant bit rate (CBR) services and circuit emulation. AAL 2: For variable bit rate (VBR) services. AAL 5: For data ( IP datagram)

The AAL is further divided into two sub layers. They are: Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) SAR is located at the lower section of AAL. The packets are broken down into cells during the transmission by this sub layer and they are again kept together at the destination. Basically concerned with cells, this sub layer is also able to add headers and trailers to the data units which are given to it through CS in order to form user information.

Convergence sub layer (CS) Service dependant Convergence sub layer plays crucial role to make systems of ATM give various services and applications. It also accepts bit streams from the application and breaks them unit of 44 or 48 bytes for transmission.

On the basis of types of data, various types of AAL layers are defined which are as follows. AAL 1 AAL 2 AAL

AAL 5

AAL 1 This AAL is used to support service class A. Basically, the applications requiring CBR like video and voice conferencing, 64 kbps voice uses this service. This is known as isochronous. These applications are very sensitive to time and thus end to end timing is predominant and has to be endorsed.

Fig: AAL 1

AAL 2 Initially, AAL2 was believed to endorse VBR (Variable Bit Rate) applications. Packetized video and voice is the great example of such VBR applications. Although AAL2 was thought in the early days of the development of ATM, it was not planned but later on it came into action when the designers felt the need of AAL for voice traffic. At the beginning they named that layer as AAL6 but soon they relabeled as AAL 2. In the present context, AAL2 transport voice traffic and also allows various small packetized video to be packed in a sing cell payload of 48 byte. This AAL is used to support service class B.

Fig: AAL 2

AAL AAL 3 and AAL 4 were designed in order to support connection oriented data traffic which does not contain delay constraints. These two layers too endorse VBR applications like transfer of file. Soon,, the designers came to know that there was only a few differences between AAL 3 and AAL 4. So both layers were combined to form one AAL . This service is no more in use now since it was replaced by the simpler AAL 5. This AAL supports both service class C and D.

Fig: AAL

AAL 5 This one is the common preferred AAL used in today world. AAL5 came into action basically for the applications which do not have any delay constraints. IP traffic, FTP, LAN and Network management are some of the applications in which AAL 5 was implemented. Like, AAL , AAL 5 also endorses the service classes C and D.

Fig: AAL 5

Here is the table representing the four AALs along with their supported service classes and QoS.

Fig: four AALs and their supported service class and QoS.

ATM Layer This layer lies above the physical layer of the ATM Reference model. Multiplexing, network management; routing, switching and traffic management are the major functions of this layer. It accepts segments of 48 byte from the AAL sub layers and then transforms them into cell of 53 byte by adding header of 5 byte. In this way, this layer processes outgoing traffic. We have already mentioned above about the format of ATM cell header. Four major functions of ATM layer are as follows: Multiplexing and de-multiplexing of ATM cell This function includes cells multiplexing from individual VPs and VCs into a resulting cell stream in the way it is transmitting.

GFC (Generic Flow Control) ATM layer is responsible for controlling the flow of ATM traffic in a network of customer. This function is defined at the UNI of B-ISDN and is no more in use.

Generation and extraction This function includes adding the proper ATM cell header to the cell information field which is received from the AAL in the direction it is transmitting. The values of VPI and VCI are received by translating from the SAP identifier and the cell header is removed in the direction it is receiving.

VPI/VCI translation ATM layer perform this function at the nodes of ATM switching. ATM layer translates the VPI field value of every incoming cell into a novel VPI value which is going out. It translates VCI and VPI values into new values at VC.

ATM Addressing