Asynchronous Transfer Mode

(ATM)

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 An Overview of ATM
• ATM is Asynchronous Transfer Mode.
• ATM is originally the transfer mode for
implementing Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN).
• In 1988, CCITT (from ITU) issued the first two
recommendations relating to B-ISDN:
– I.113 Vocabulary of Terms for Broadband Aspects of
ISDN
– I.121 Broadband Aspects of ISDN
• In 1911, the ATM Forum was created with the
goal of accelerating the development of ATM
standards.
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 An Overview of ATM
• Connection-oriented packet-switched network
• Used in both WAN and LAN settings
• Signaling (connection setup) Protocol:
– Q.2931
• Packets are called cells (53 bytes)
– 5-byte header + 48-byte payload
• Commonly transmitted over SONET
– other physical layers possible
• Connections can be switched (SVC), or
permanent (PVC).
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Variable vs. Fixed-Length Packets
• No Optimal Length
– if small: high header-to-data overhead
– if large: low utilization for small messages
• Fixed-Length Easier to Switch in Hardware
– simpler
– enables parallelism

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 Big vs. Small Packets
• Small Improves Queue behavior
– finer-grained pre-emption point for scheduling link
• maximum packet = 4KB
• link speed = 100Mbps
• transmission time = 4096 x 8/100 = 327.68us
• high priority packet may sit in the queue 327.68us
• in contrast, 53 x 8/100 = 4.24us for ATM
– near cut-through behavior
• two 4KB packets arrive at same time
• link idle for 327.68us while both arrive
• at end of 327.68us, still have 8KB to transmit
• in contrast, can transmit first cell after 4.24us
• at end of 327.68us, just over 4KB left in queue

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 Big vs Small (cont)

• Small Improves Latency (for voice)

– voice digitally encoded at 64KBps (8-bit samples at 8
KHz)
– need full cell’s worth of samples before sending cell
– example: 1000-byte cells implies 125ms per cell (too
long)
– smaller latency implies no need for echo cancellors
• ATM Compromise: 48 bytes = (32+64)/2

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 An Overview of ATM
• ATM operates on a best effort basis.
• ATM guarantees that cells will not be disordered.
• Two types of connections:
– Point-to-point
– Multipoint (Multicast)
• Four Types of Services:
– CBR (Constant Bit Rate)
– VBR (Variable Bit Rate)
– ABR (Available Bit Rate) Flow Control, Rate-based,
Credit- based
– UBR (Unspecific Bit Rate) No Flow control.
• Aggregate Bandwidth vs. Shared Medium (FDDI, Fast
Ethernet).
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ATM Network Structure

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 Cell Format
4 8 16 3 1 8 384 (48 bytes)
GFC VPI VCI Type CLP HEC (CRC-8) Payload

• User-Network Interface (UNI)

– host-to-switch format
– GFC: Generic Flow Control (still being defined)
– VCI: Virtual Circuit Identifier
– VPI: Virtual Path Identifier
– Type: management, congestion control, AAL5
(later)
– CLPL Cell Loss Priority
– HEC: Header Error Check (CRC-8)

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 Cell Format
12 16 3 1 8 384 (48 bytes)
VPI VCI PTI CLP HEC (CRC-8) Payload

• Network-Network Interface (NNI)

– switch-to-switch format
– GFC becomes part of VPI field

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 ATM Characteristics

• No error protection or flow control on

a link-by-link basis.
• ATM operates in a connection-
oriented mode.
• The header functionality is reduced.
• The information field length is
relatively small and fixed.
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 ATM Protocol Stack

Management plane

Control plane User plane

Higher Layers Higher Layers

ATM Adaptation Layer

Virtual Channel Functions
ATM Layer Plane management
Virtual Path Functions

Physical Layer (PMD) Layer management

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 Physical Layer Interface Specification

• SONET STS-3C
• SONET STS-12
• DS3
• STP for ATM LAN
• etc.

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 ATM Layer Service
• Transparent transfer of 48-octet data unit
• Deliver data in sequence on a connection
• Two levels of multiplexing
• Three types of connections
– Point-to-point
– Point-to-Multipoint
– Multipoint-to-Multipoint
• Transport is best-effort
• Network QoS negotiation
• Traffic control and congestion control
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 ATM Layer Functions
• Cell multiplexing and switching
• Cell rate decoupling
• Cell discrimination based on pre-defined VPI/VCI
• Quality of Service (QoS)
• Payload type characterization
• Generic flow control
• Loss priority indication and Selective cell discarding
• Traffic shaping

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 Pre-assigned VPI/VCI Values
• Unassigned Cell Indication (VPI = 0, VCI = 0)
• Meta signaling (VCI=1)
– Meta signaling is the bootstrap procedure used to establish
and release a signaling VC. Not used for PVC setup.
• General broadcasting signaling (VCI=2)
• OAM F4 flow indication -- segment and end-to-end
(VCI=3 and VCI=4)
• Point-to-Point Signaling (VCI=5)
• Carriage of Interim Local Management Interface
(ILMI) messages (VPI=0, VCI=16)

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 Cell Rate Decoupling and Cell
Discrimination
• Cell Rate Decoupling
– ATM sending entity adds unassigned cells to the assigned cell stream in
order to adjust to the cell rate acquired by the payload capacity of the
physical layer (R).
• Cell Discrimination
– Meta signaling
– General broadcast signaling
– Point-to-point Signaling
– Segment OAM F4 flow cell
– End-to-end OAM F4 flow cell
– ILMI message
– User data

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Virtual Channels, Virtual Paths,
and the Physical Channel

虛擬路徑 虛擬路徑
虛擬通道 實體線路 虛擬通道
100
細胞 100
100
200 100 200

100 100
200 200 300/40 300/10 200/300 100/100 200 200
300
300
10 10
20
30
300 300 20
30
40 40

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 Virtual Channels
 The virtual channel (VC) is the fundamental unit of
transport in a B-ISDN. Each ATM cell contains an explicit
label in its header to identify the virtual channel.
 a Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI)
 a Virtual Path Identifier (VPI)
 A virtual channel (VC) is a communication channel that
provides for the transport of ATM cells between two or
more endpoints for information transfer.
 A Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) identifiers a particular
VC within a particular VP over a UNI or NNI.
 A specific value of VCI has no end-to-end meaning.
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 Virtual Paths
 A Virtual Path (VP) is a group of Virtual Channels that are
carried on the same physical facility and share the same Vi
rtual Path Identifier (VPI) value.
 The VP boundaries are delimited by Virtual Path Terminat
ors (VPT).
 AT VPTs, both VPI and VCI are processed.
 Between VPTs associated with the same VP, only the VPI v
alues are processed (and translated) at ATM network elem
ents.
 The VCI values are processed only at VPTs, and are not tra
nslated at intermediate ATM network elements.

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Segmentation and Reassembly
• ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)
– AAL 1 and 2 designed for applications that need
guaranteed rate (e.g., voice, video)
– AAL 3/4 designed for packet data
– AAL 5 is an alternative standard for packet data

AAL AAL

… …
ATM ATM

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 AAL Reference Structure
SAP

Service Specific CS (SCCS)

(may be Null)
Convergence
Primitives Sublayer (CS)

AAL Common Part CS (CPCS)

Primitives

SAR(Common) SAR

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 AAL

L Service Specific Layers message

a
y
e AAL
r 48 byte payloads
...
ATM add 5 byte header
M ...
Transmission
G Convergence
M Sublayer
T
PMD

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ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL)
• In order to carry data units longer than 48 octets in ATM cells, a
n adaptation layer is needed.
• The ATM adaptation layer (AAL) provides for segmentation and
reassembly of higher-layer data units and for detection of errors
in transmission.
• Since the ATM layer simply carries cells without concern for the
ir contents, a number of different AALs can be used across a si
ngle ATM interface.
• The AAL maps the user, control, or management protocol data
units into the information field of the ATM cell and vice versa.
• To reflect the spectrum of applications, four service classes hav
e been defined by CCITT.

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 AAL Service Classification
Class A Class B Class C Class D Signalling
Circuit Packetized Connection
Datagram (Q.93B)
Emulation voice/video Oriented
Data
Attribute
AAL 3 AAL 4
AAL1 AAL2 SAAL
AAL 5
Timing between
source and
Required Not required
destination

Bit Rate Constant Variable

Connection Connection oriented Connectionless

Mode

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AAL 1 (Constant Bit Rate -CBR)
Functions
• Emulation of DS1 and DS3 Circuits
• Distribution with forward error correction
• Handle cell delay for constant bit rate
• Transfer timing information between source and destination
• Transfer structure information (structure pointer)
• Provide indication of unrecoverable lost or errored information

SAR PDU

Header SN SNP 47 Octets Payload

CSI(C) Seq CRCby Profess

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1 3 3 1
AAL 2 Protocol Data Unit (PDU)

ATM PDU
SAR PDU

Header SN IT 47 Octets Payload LI CRC

 SN: Sequence number

 IT: Information Type:BOM,COM,EOM,SSM
 Length Indicator

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 AAL 3/4

• Convergence Sublayer Protocol Data Unit (C

S-PDU)
8 8 16 < 64 KB 0– 24 8 8 16

CPI Btag BASize User data Pad 0 Etag Len

– CPI: commerce part indicator (version field)

– Btag/Etag:beginning and ending tag
– BAsize: hint on amount of buffer space to allocate
– Length: size of whole PDU

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 Cell Format
40 2 4 10 352 (44 bytes) 6 10

ATM header Type SEQ MID Payload Length CRC-10

– Type
• BOM: beginning of message
• COM: continuation of message
• EOM end of message
– SEQ: sequence of number
– MID: message id
– Length: number of bytes of PDU in this cell

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 AAL 5 PDU Structure
• The Simple and Efficient Adaptation Layer
(SEAL), attempts to reduce the complexity
and overhead of AAL 3/4.
• It eliminates most of the overhead of AAL 3
/4.
• AAL 5 comprises a convergence sublayer a
nd a SAR sublayer, although the SAR is es
sentially null.

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 AAL5
• CS-PDU Format
< 64 KB 0– 47 bytes 16 16 32

Data Pad Reserved Len CRC-32

– pad so trailer always falls at end of ATM cell

– Length: size of PDU (data only)
– CRC-32 (detects missing or misordered cells)
• Cell Format
– end-of-PDU bit in Type field of ATM header

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