Application of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (Atm) Technology To Pic

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations
1-1-1996
Application of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (Atm) technology to

Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (Pacs): A survey
Sridharan R Madabhushanam
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Madabhushanam, Sridharan R, "Application of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (Atm) technology to Picture
Archiving and Communication Systems (Pacs): A survey" (1996). UNLV Retrospective Theses &
Dissertations. 3249.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/vpsr-biak
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Application of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Technology to Picture Archiving and Communication Systems
(FACS): A Survey.
by
Sridharan Madabhushanam
A thesis subm itted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science
in
Electrical and Computer Engineering
D epartm ent of Electrical and C om puter Engineering

December. 1996
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Ann Arbor, MI 48103
The thesis of Sridharan Madabhushanam for the degree of Master of Science
in Electrical and Computer Engineering is approved.
Chairperson, Shahram Latifi, Ph.D
Examir^g Committee Member, ^ g e n e McGaugh, Ph.D
rxamining Committee Member, Yahia Baghzouz, Ph.D
Graduate Faculty Representative, Ajoy Kumar Datta, Ph.D
Graduate Decin, R onald^. Smith, Ph.D

December, 1996
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ABSTRACT
Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone net
work for speech, d ata networks for com puter communications, and broadcast networks for
television are very capable in supporting their intended services. These networks, however,
are not well suited for other services like multim edia applications which involve the process
ing and exchange of information in the various media of text, audio, and images. Broadband
Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) provides a range of narrowband and broad
band services for voice, video, and multimedia. It provides virtual connections for services
which are distributive or interactive, constant bit rate or variable bit rate, and connection
oriented or connectionless. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM ) has been selected by the
standards bodies as the transfer mode for implementing B-ISDN.
The ability to digitize images has lead to the prospect of reducing the physical
space requirements, material costs, and manual labor of traditional film handling tasks in
hospitals. T he system which handles the acquisition, storage, and transmission of medical
images is called a Picture Archiving and Communication System (FACS). A complete PACS
system will require some means of transmission of the large am ounts of digital data. The
transmission system wUl directly im pact the speed of image transfer. Today the most
common transm ision means used by acquisition and display station products is Ethernet.
However, when considering network media, it is im portant to consider what the long term
needs wiU be. Ethernet may be easily available, b u t sheer image d ata sizes will require most
iii
sites to move to higher speed network media. Fiber Distributed D ata Interface (FDDI) may
seem to be a good choice but considering the small incremental increase, most sites wiU
consider moving directly to a much faster medium. This will reduce the need to reinvest
in network upgrades after only a few years of use. Although ATM is a new standard, it is
showing signs of becoming th e next logical step to meet the needs of high speed networks.
This thesis is a survey on ATM, and PACS. All the concepts involved in developing
a PACS are presented in an orderly m anner. It presents the recent developments in ATM,
its applicability to PACS and th e issues to be resolved for realising an ATM-based complete
PACS. This work wUl be useful in providing the latest information, for any future research
on ATM-based networks, and PACS.
IV
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my thanks to my advisor, Dr. Shahram Latifi, for his help
and thought throughout this work. I would like to thank Dr. Yahia Baghzouz, D r. Eugene
McGaugh, and Dr. Ajoy K um ar D atta for being in my thesis committee. I would also
like to thank my parents, family and friends for their constant support and encouragement
throughout my career.
C ontents
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ................................................................................................... v
1 Introduction 1
1.1 In tro d u c tio n .................................................................................................................. 1
2 Computer Networks 8
2.1 In tro d u ctio n ................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 The OSI M o d e l............................................................................................................ 9
2.2.1 OSI L a y e r s ...................................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Layer Functions and Standards ............................................................... 12
2.2.3 Entities and S erv ices....................................................................................... 15
2.3 Internetworking of an OSI N etw o rk ........................................................................ 16
2.4 Some Existing Models and P r o to c o ls ..................................................................... 17
2.4.1 Transmission M e d i a ...................................................................................... 17
2.4.2 Transmission Techniques............................................................................... 18
2.4.3 Network Topologies ...................................................................................... 19
2.4.4 Access Control M e th o d s ............................................................................... 19
2.5 Performance Requirements of a Broadband N e tw o r k ....................................... 27
2.5.1 Semantic T r a n s p a r e n c y ............................................................................... 27
2.5.2 Time T ransparency......................................................................................... 30
2.6 Transfer M o d e s ............................................................................................................ 30
2.6.1 Circuit S w itching............................................................................................ 31
2.6.2 M ultirate Circuit Sw itching:........................................................................ 33
2.6.3 Fast Circuit Switching:.................................................................................. 34
2.6.4 Packet Sw itching:............................................................................................ 34
2.6.5 Frame Relaying and Frame S w itc h in g :..................................................... 35
2.6.6 Fast Packet Sw itching:.................................................................................. 35
2.6.7 Performance of A T M : .................................................................................. 36
2.7 Integrated Services Digital N e tw o r k ...................................................................... 36
vi
vu
2.7.1 ISDN L a y e rs :.................................................................................................... 38

2.7.2 The need for B-ISDN ................................................................................... 42
2.8 B-ISDN M o d e l:............................................................................................................ 42
2.8.1 B-ISDN ReferenceModel: ............................................................................ 44
2.8.2 B-ISDN S e r v ic e s ............................................................................................. 45
Asynchronous Transfer Mode 48

3.1 ATM T opology:............................................................................................................ 48
3.2 ATM Connection Identifiers: ................................................................................. 49
3.3 ATM Switching: ........................................................................................................ 51
3.4 M u ltic a s tin g :.............................................................................................................. 57
3.5 The Asynchronous Transfer Mode L ay er:............................................................. 58
3.6 ATM A daptation L a y e r :........................................................................................... 60
3.7 Types of ATM A daptation L a y e r s :....................................................................... 64
3.7.1 AAL Type 1 : .................................................................................................... 64
3.7.2 AAL Type 2 : .................................................................................................... 66
3.7.3 AAL Type 3 / 4 : ................................................................................................ 68
3.7.4 AAL Type 5 : .................................................................................................... 73
3.8 Traffic Management and Congestion C o n tr o l :................................................... 76
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems 82

4.1 General Concepts of P icture Archiving and Communication Systems(PACS): 83
4.1.1 Components of a P A C S :................................................................................ 84
4.1.2 Integration of Hospital Information Systems and Radiology Informa
tion S y s te m s : 86
4.2 Medical Imaging Standards: 90
4.2.1 Version 1 . 0 : ....................................................................................................... 91
4.2.2 Version 2 . 0 : ....................................................................................................... 93
4.2.3 Version 3 . 0 ....................................................................................................... 94
4.2.4 American Society of Testing and M aterials (ASTM) Medical Standards: 96
4.2.5 Medical Information Bus Standard IEEE P 1 0 7 3 ..................................... 97
4.2.6 Health Level 7 S ta n d a r d ................................................................................ 97
4.2.7 Medical D ata Interchange Standard IEEE P I 1 5 7 :..................................... 98
4.3 Medical Image M anagement: ................................................................................. 100
4.3.1 D atabase Storage Issu es:................................................................................ 101
4.3.2 D atabase D e sig n :............................................................................................. 102
4.3.3 A utom atic File Transfer and Image Prefetching: ................................... 103
4.3.4 Image Compression Issues: ........................................................................ 103
4.4 Classification of P A C S :.............................................................................................. 106
4.4.1 Modality Centered P A C S :............................................................................ 106
4.4.2 Departm ental P A C S :...................................................................................... 107
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viu
4.4.3 Full Hospital P A C S :........................................................................................ 107

4.4.4 Global P A C S :..................................................................................................... 107
4.5 PACS Design C o n c e p ts :............................................................................................. 109
4.6 Reliability Issues in PACS: ..................................................................................... 112
4.7 Some existing PACS: ............................................................................................... 117
4.7.1 Telemedicine P r o to c o ls :................................................................................. 118
Conclusions 121
5.1 Observations and Recommendations : ..................................................................... 121
5.1.1 Migration to A T M :............................................................................................ 126
5.1.2 ATM L A N s:........................................................................................................ 130
5.2 Issues to be reso lv ed :............................................................................................. 139
B IB L IO G R A P H Y ............................................................................................... 144
List o f Figures
2.1 The OSI M o d e l............................................................................................................. 11

2.2 OSI Model In te rn e tw o rk in g ...................................................................................... 16
2.3 Transfer M o d e s ............................................................................................................. 32
2.4 Typical ISDN T o p o lo g y ............................................................................................. 37
2.5 The ISDN L a y e rs ......................................................................................................... 38
2.6 LAPD F r a m e ................................................................................................................ 39
2.7 The Q.931 M essag e...................................................................................................... 40
2.8 B-ISDN Reference C o n fig u ra tio n ............................................................................ 43
2.9 The BISDN ATM Protocol Reference M o d e l........................................................ 44
2.10 B-ISDN Layer F u n ctio n s............................................................................................. 46
3.1 A Typical ATM T o p o lo g y ......................................................................................... 50

3.2 Basic Switching E le m e n t............................................................................................. 52
3.3 M atrix Switching Element W ith O utput B u ffers................................................... 53
3.4 Central Memory Switching Element ..................................................................... 53
3.5 Bus Type Switching E l e m e n t ................................................................................... 54
3.6 Ring-Type Switching E le m e n t................................................................................... 55
3.7 ATM Switching P r in c i p le ......................................................................................... 56
3.8 ATM Cell S t r u c t u r e ................................................................................................... 58
3.9 Header Structure at the U N I ................................................................................... 59
3.10 Header Structure at the N N I ................................................................................... 61
3.11 AAL Service C la s s e s ................................................................................................... 63
3.12 AAL 1 SAR S tr u c t u r e ................................................................................................ 65
3.13 AAl 2 SAR Structure ................................................................................................ 67
3.14 Transmission Using AAl 3 / 4 ...................................................................................... 69
3.15 CPCS-PDU E ncapsulation......................................................................................... 70
3.16 CPCS-PDU Form at for AAL 3 / 4 ............................................................................ 72
3.17 Transmission Using AAL 5 ...................................................................................... 74
3.18 CPCS-PDU Form at for AAL 5 ............................................................................... 75
4.1 HIS/RIS-PACS Transfer of I n f o r m a tio n ............................................................... 88

4.2 The Dicom Model ...................................................................................................... 95
4.3 A Global PACS A r c h ite c tu r e ................................................................................... 108
IX
4.4 DICOM and T C P /IP over ATM for T e le ra d io lo g y .......................................... 114
4.5 Telemedicine Protocol S ta c k ..................................................................................... 119
5.1 A PACS W orkstation................................................................................................... 127

5.2 PACS architecture based on ATM backbone......................................................... 129
5.3 ATM-ATM In terw o rk in g ........................................................................................... 133
5.4 ATM-LAN In te rw o rk in g ........................................................................................... 134
5.5 LAN-LAN I n te r w o r k in g ........................................................................................... 135
5.6 LAN Emulation Client (LEC) protocol layering................................................... 136
5.7 ATM networks linked to form wider ATM cloud.................................................. 138
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List of Tables
2.1 ISDN Layer 3 M e s s a g e s ............................................................................................. 41
3.1 Pre-assigned Values of the Cell Header a t the ATM Layer by ITU-T . . . . 62
4.1 Standards for Transfering Messages and D ata ......................................................... 99

4.2 Image Param eters ....................................................................................................... 101
4.3 OSI Communication Protocol Layers........................................................................ 113
XI
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C hapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
A com puter network is a structure which enables a d ata processing user at one location to
make use of d ata processing functions or services performed at another location.
Communication networks are generéüly classified into three broad categories based
on the distances they span [1][2][3]. Wide area networks(WANs) cover large geographic
areas, m etropolitan area networks(MANs) span a few miles, and local area networks(LANs)
are generally limited to a single building or a group of buildings.
In a local area network, devices are usually hooked together via private, dedi
cated cables or other physical communication m edia. Typical LAN transm ission media
are twisted-wire-pair telephone wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and various forms of
wireless transmission. Wide A rea Networks often use public, switched telecommunication
facilities or packet-switching technologies for communication[4][5].
LANs and WANs also differ in the m ethods employed to control access to the tran s
mission medium. Whereas LANs employ random medium access control methods like carrier
sense multiple access with collision detection(C SM A /C D ) and distributed medium access
2
control m ethods like token ring and token bus, the form of access control more commonly
used in WAN d ata links is centralised medium access control like polling, circuit switching,
packet switching and tim e division multiple access(TDMA)[6][7].
Conventional circuit switching is not well suited for high-speed networking, because,
no single user needs m ore th an a small percentage of the to ta l capacity of th e transmission
channel. Packet switching allows a number of users to share a high capacity transmission
channel. Packet switching works well for com puter d ata a t low to m oderate transmission
speeds. But packet switching is not well suited for voice or video communications, because,
the delays introduced by the packet switches are too long and too unpredictable for voice
or video applications.
Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone n et
work for speech, d a ta networks for com puter communications, and broadcast networks for
television are very capable in supporting their intended services.These networks, however,
are not well suited for other services like multimedia applications which involve the pro
cessing and exchange of information in the various media of text, audio, and images [8].
A new standard called Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN) was developed to
integrate a wide range of services that are inherently different in such network requirements
as bandw idth, holding tim es, end-to-end delays, and error rates [9][10].
The current ISDN standards specify two types of user interfaces called basic rate
access and prim ary rate access. Basic rate access comprises of two 64 kbps B channels and
a 16 kbps D channel (2B -fD ). Primary ra te access comprises of 23 B channels and a 64
kbps D channel (23B-I-D) [11][12].
The highest bit rate ISDN can offer is about 1.5 Mbps, this is not sufficient for
3
applications which require higher bit rates; like connection o f LANs, or transmission of
moving images. This led to the development of Broadband Integrated Services Digital
Network(B-ISDN) [13][14][15][16]. B-ISDN includes 64 kbps ISDN capabilities and provides
the broadband user with bit rates ranging from 50 mbps to hundreds of megabits per second.
C hapter 2 deals with the various types of com puter networking technologies devel
oped, the need for a common set of standards to govern the functioning of these networking
technologies, the International Standards O rganization’s (ISO’s) Open System Interconnec
tion (OSI) model [17][18][19][20], and the ISDN and B-ISDN architectures[21].
B-ISDN provides a range of narrowband and broadband services for voice, video and
multimedia. It provides virtual connections for services which are distributive or interactive,
constant bit rate, or variable bit rate, and connection-oriented or connection-less [22] [23].
A B-ISDN call may consist of a number of virtual connections th a t may be point-to-
point or m ultipoint, symmetric or asymmetric, unidirectional or bidirectional, and switched
or perm anent.
W ith th e increasing number of users per network, and increasing user-bandwidth
needs, there is a need for developing faster networks. From 1991 to 1994, it was found
th a t the average number of users per network segment has increased from 12 to 21, and the
average bandw idth available to th e users has decreased by more th an 40% [24]. As available
bandw idth is dropping, each user’s bandwidth dem and is increasing. The growth in pro
cessing power a t each node, combined with the corresponding grow th in data transfer needs,
boosts bandw idth demands of current applications. In addition, emerging data-intensive
applications like video conferencing, medical imaging, etc., lead to increasing dem and for
larger network bandw idths [25][26]. Also, time critical applications like audio and video
which need to be transm itted within a set period further complicates network needs. If
the network is crowded, conventional shared Ethernet cannot guarantee the timely network
access such applications require. Section 2.3 of chapter 2 deals with some of the high speed
networking technologies in use.
Asynchronous transfer mode(ATM ) has been selected to be the transfer mode for
implementing B-ISDN [27][28][29]. The te rm asynchronous does not refer to physical trans
mission (which is synchronous in B-ISDN ), it refers to the m anner in which bandw idth is
allocated among connections and users.
In ATM, all information to be transferred is packed into fixed size slots called cells.
These cells have a 48 octet information field and a 5 octet header. The inform ation field
contains user d a ta and the header field carries information for th e identification o f cells. The
use of short cells in ATM coupled with th e high transfer rates involved result in transfer
delay variations which are sufficiently small to enable it to be applied to a wide range of
services, including real-time services such as voice and video [30][31].
One of the main advantage of ATM-based networks is th a t the multiplexing and
switching of cells is independent of the actu al application [32]. This enables the sam e piece
of equipment to handle low bit rate connections as well as high bit rate connections.
The disadvantages of ATM are cell loss and variable cell delays in th e network.
Also considerable processing is involved in converting user information into and from the
ATM cell form at, and in carrying cells at high rates through each switch [33]. C hapter 3 is
dedicated to the concepts of ATM.
The ability to digitize images has lead to the prospect of reducing th e physical
space requirements, material costs, and m anual labor of traditional film handling tasks in
hospitals. The system which handles the acquisition, storage, an d transmission of medical
images is called a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) [34][35][36]. A full
fledged PACS often includes a teleradiology sub-system and supports long-term electronic
storage of diagnostic images [37][38][39]. It is not ju st limited to a specific departm ent but
is used to manage the flow of diagnostic images throughout a health care system.
A teleradiology system acquires radiographic images from one location and transm its
them to one or more distant sites where they are displayed and converted to hardcopy film
recordings. It consists of two or more sites connected by a wide area network(WAN) or a
m etropolitan area network(MAN) communication system [40][41][42].
A teleradiology system provides for prim ary interpretation of radiological images for
patients in under served areas, integrates radiological services for multi-hospital health care
provider consortiums, improves emergency service and intensive care unit coverage, offers
consulting-at-a-distance with sub-speciality radiologists, and provides radiologists immedi
ate access to large academic centers for help in the interpretation of difficult and problematic
cases.
The main challenge for the developers of PACS and teleradiology systems is the
integration of Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Radiology Inform ation Systems (RIS),
and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) [43][44][45].
A high speed, high-performance network which links medical clinics, hospitals, phar
macies, labs, universities, and medical archive sites should be able to support various
types of information like plain text, medical images, digitized sound files, image sequences,
real time animation, medical simulation, and multim edia applictions like videoconferencing
[46][47][48][49].
6
A complete PACS system will require some means of transmission o f the large
amounts of digital data. The transmission system will directly impact the speed of im
age transfer [49][50][51]. Today the most common transmission means used by acquisition
and display station products is Ethernet [52]. However, when considering network media, it
is im portant to consider what the long term needs will be. Ethernet may be easily available
but sheer image data sizes will require m ost sites to move to higher speed network media
[53][54][55][56]. FDDI may seem to be a good choice but considering the small incremental
increase, most sites will consider moving directly to a much faster medium. This will reduce
the need to reinvest in network upgrades after only a few years of use. Although ATM is
a new standard, it is showing signs of becoming th e next logical step to meet the needs of
high speed networks [57][58][59][60].
In chapter 4, the various components which constitute a PACS, and th e issues of
integration of PACS with other digital systems are described in section 4.1. To facilitate easy
transmission of medical images in a hospital (and among hospitals) which is (are) usually
multi-modality, and multi-vendor environm ent(s), several medical imaging standards were
developed, the most popular standards are described in section 4.2. With hospitals having
to handle very large amounts of data, efficient im age management is very im portant. The
various aspects involved in medical image m anagem ent, like database design, prefetching,
and image compression are discussed in section 4.3. The different classes of PACS and the
design concepts involved in the development of a PACS are described in sections 4.4 and
4.5 respectively. Reliability is a very im portant issue in a medical environment, section 4.6
deals with this issue. Section 4.7 lists some of the existing PACS and describes in brief, a
few of the proprietary networks, some of these systems have used.
C hapter 5 presents the conclusions of this thesis in the form of observ^ations and
recommendations. M igration to ATM is complicated by the limitations of existing PACS,
section 5.2 describes the differences between the existing LAN technologies and ATM. and
discusses the two standard techniques for providing LAN services over ATM. Section 5.3
describes the various issues to be resolved for rapid deployment of ATM into the medical
environment.
C hapter 2
Computer Networks
The proliferation of computer networks has necessitated th e development of a common set of
standards to govern the way in which they functioned. T he International Standards Organi
zation’s (ISO ’s) Open System Interconnection (OSI) model is described in detail in section
2.2. A generic model for interconnecting two nodes on different networks is described in sec
tion 2.3. Section 2.4 describes the salient features of some of the most popular networking
technologies. The increasing demand for larger bandwidths has lead to the development of
a broadband network. Section 2.5 describes the requirements; and section 2.6 describes the
various transfer modes considered for the development o f a broadband network. Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) was developed to provide a single network for all kinds of
data, section 2.7 describes its design. For applications like medical imaging, interconnection
of LANS, etc., the bandwidth provided by ISDN soon proved to be insufficient, this lead to
the development of Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). Section 2.8
describes the features of B-ISDN.
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2.1 Introduction
The telephone industry has influenced th e development of the present telecommunication
networks in a profound m anner [4][5][61]. The T1 and T3 links provided by th e telephone
companies form the foundation for most of the voice networks. Infact B-ISDN is not a
com puter network, it is a world wide digital telephone network. Although com puter com
munication is possible over this network, the real intent of B-ISDN is to build a digital
telephone network for voice transm ission. High Definition Television (H D TV ), Video Con
ference, and other multimedia applications [14]
The progress in technology and system concepts has led to the m ushrooming of
various networking technologies, each one completely different from the others in the way
d a ta is handled and transm itted. This necessitated the development of a common set of
standards to govern the way in which these networking technologies functioned [13][17].
T he International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and ISO are two such stan d ard s bodies
which develop standards to ensure com patibility between the various networking technolo
gies [18][19].
2.2 The OSI Model
In the network environment, the network components communicate with each o th e r through
established conventions called protocols. Several protocols are necessary to support the
various functions provided by the com puter systems, leading to a great deal of complexity.
In order to deal with this complexity, computer networks are designed according
to the concept of layered architectures[62]. In the layered architecture, all th e functions
associated with information transfer and exchange are partitioned and assigned to different
10
layers.
The ISO approved the Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) reference model as a
standard in 1983. The OSI provides a common basis for the coordination of standards
development for the purpose of systems interconnection, and is aimed at removing the
techniczd barriers from communication between systems of different origin. The OSI model
is organized into seven layers, each layer contains several protocols th a t are invoked based
on the specific needs of the user. The layered architecture logically decomposes a complex
network into smaller, more manageable layers, making the development and maintenance
of networks a lot easier [1][2][3].
In the OSI model, each layer is divided into smaller operational entities[6][63], which
are invoked by the end user to obtain the required services.
2.2.1 OSI Layers
In the OSI model, the functions th at have to be carried out in order to establish and
maintain information exchange between two or more systems are partioned into seven layers
as shown in figure 2.1. In the OSI model, the functions of com puter communications
and networking are subdivided into two functional groups; network-oriented layers and the
application oriented layers. The functions of the network-oriented layers (layers 1 through
4) are: (a) to establish th e connection between the two systems th a t wish to communicate
through the underlying networks being used and (b) to control the transfer of messages
across this connection without errors, losses or replication[63]. Collectively, they provide the
higher, application oriented layers with a network-independent, reliable message interchange
service.
The application-oriented layers (5 through 7) are concerned with the representation
11
File transfer, access and management,

document and message interchange, Application
job transfer and manipulation. Layer
Syntax independent
message interchange service.
Transfer syntax negotiation Presentation
Data representation transformations. Layer
Dialogue and sjmchronisation Session
control for application entities. Layer
Network independent
message interchange service.
End-to-end message transfer,
(connection management, error control, Transport
fragmentation, flow control). Layer
Network routing, addressing, Network
call set-up and clearing. Layer
Data link control Link
(framing, data transparency, error control) Layer
Mechanical and electrical Physical
network interface definitions
Layer
Physical connection to network
termination equipment
Data communications network.
Figure 2.1: T he OSI Model
12
of the d ata being exchanged .They provide user application processes with necessary support
functions to perform a range of distributed processing tasks.
Each layer participates in d a ta transfer by following its own protocol, communicating
with only its peer layer in the corresponding system. T he only direct link between two
communicating systems is the actual physical network connection. W ithin each system,
there is a well defined interface associated with each layer th a t allows to accept, process,
and pass on d ata during a transfer. In this way, a layer communicates with its peer layer
using the services provided by the layer immediately below. The message initiated at the
application layer is passed down from layer to layer, each layer adding its own Protocol
Control Information (PC I) if required, and behaving in accordance with its own protocol.
At the physical layer, the fully prepared message is transm itted over the underlying networks
to the receiving nodes. In the receiving node this procedure is reversed. On its upward
path, each item of P C I is removed by the appropriate layer and the remaining message
contents are passed up to the layers above.
2.2.2 Layer Functions and Standards
Network-Oriented Layers
• Physical Layer
This layer establishes the physical connection between the com puter and network
term ination equipment and is specifically concerned with the electrical and mechanical
properties of this connection. The physical layer standards include the type of signals
used, the size of the plug or th e socket, the number of pins and their meaning, and so
on.
13
• D ata Link Control Layer
This layer provides th e means of transm itting d ata over the underlying physical con
nection. The functions of this layer include bit, byte, frame synchronisation, and error
detection. The d a ta link layer is sub divided into Medium Access Control (MAC) and
Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayers. The MAC sublayer is responsible for functions
such as collision detection or token passing, which allocate the transmission channel
to different nodes. The LLC sublayer is responsible for error recovery and recovery of
lost frames.
• Network Layer
The functions of this layer include establishing and clearing network connections and
routing messages between two transport layer protocol entities. The network layer
also enables two systems to interconnect across one or more subnetworks[Lin 92],
thus providing a uniform end-to-end service. Two types of services can be supported;
connection oriented in which a permanent connection, either physically or logically, is
setup for the duration of the communication and connection less, in which a permanent
connection is not required and a best try approach is adopted.
• Transport Layer
The transport layer provides the application-oriented layers above it with a reliable
message transfer facility th a t is independent of the underlying network being used[65).
Its functions include flow control, error control, and message fragm entation[66]. Here
again the connection oriented and connectionless operational modes are supported. In
the connection oriented mode, the transport protocol provides full duplex transfer of
information between two systems and enhances the quality of the underlying network
14
service to meet the application needs. In the connection less mode, the transport pro
tocol offers a best try approach to transfer the offered d ata and is. therefore intended
for use with high quality networks. In order to internetwork with underlying networks
of differing quality, th e connection oriented standard defines five classes of protocols,
class 0, class 1, class 2, class 3, and class 4, each intended for a different underlying
network type[65].
Application-Oriented Layers
Session Layer
It provides the means whereby two cooperating application processes running on different
network nodes can organize, synchronize, and regulate the orderly exchange of data. The
session protocol consists of a set of functional units. The units required are negotiated when
a session connection is set up.
Presentation Layer
This layer is concerned with th e syntax of d a ta th a t is to be exchanged between two com
municating processes. When a connection is being established, the presentation protocol
allows the two communicating processes to establish a common syntax for the data to be
exchanged. The presentation layer has five facilities:
• Connection establishment facility
• Connection term ination facility
• Context management facility
• Information transfer facility
15
• Dialog control facility
Application Layer
It forms the user interface to the protocol stack and the various protocol entities. The
application layer provides the support for application programs to perform a range of dis
tributed information processing functions in an open way. A number of different entities
have been defined to serve different application requirements like file transfer, rem ote access,
job transfer, e-mail, network management etc[67][68].
2.2.3 E ntities and Services
In the OSI model, a layer is considered to be a service provider to the layer above it.
The layer N at one end communicates with the layer N of another node using th e services
provided by the lower layer, the layer N-1.
The layer N obtains the services provided by layer N-1 by sending a primitive to
layer N-1. Four primitives have been defined to establish a connection between, exchange
information, and close the connections between two entities. They are request, indication,
response and confirm. This interaction between the N and the N-1 layers is done via the
service access points (SAPs) present between the N and N-1 layers[6].
The unit of d ata exchanged between two peer entities is called a Protocol D ata
Unit (PD U ). The PDU consists of the Protocol Control Information (PCI) which is the
information exchanged betwen the peer entities a t different sites on the network and the
Service D ata Unit (SDU) which is the actual user d a ta and the control information created
at the upper layers, so the (N -fl) PDU will become the (N) SDU, the (N) SDU plus the
(N) PC I will form the (N) PDU and so on.
16
2.3 Internetworking of éin OSI Network
Internetworking is basically connecting two nodes which belong to different networks. Fig
ure 2.2 shows an OSI layered model of internetworking. The da.shed arrows show the
virtual peer-peer communication, and the solid arrows the actual communication path. .A.n
internetwork or ‘internet’, made in this fashion provides end-to-end connectivity at the
tran sp o rt/ network layer boundary[69][70]. The transport layer connection is transparently
constructed from one or more d ata link layer segments. The conceptual separation of lay
ered functions enables each link layer segment to utilise different technologies, if desired,
without affecting the semantics and functions offered by the network layer to the transport
layer.
Higher Higher
Layers Layers
Transport Transport
Network Network Network Network
Link Link Link Link Link Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
End Node Router Router End Node
Figure 2.2: OSI Model Internetworking
Routers and bridges are used for interconnecting two or more networks. The man
agement of routers and bridges is an im portant part of an internetwork design. Routers
have th e responsibility of utilising the underlying link layer connections efficiently, and
exchanging information with other routers regarding the destinations they can reach.
2.4 Some Existing Models and Protocols
Several networking technologies have been developed since the evolution of the first com
puter network, each differing in its use o f physical media and access techniques. There are
four characteristics that are im portant in describing a particular form of LAN. They are:
• Transmision Medium: T h e transmission medium is the cable or other physical circuit
that is used to interconnect systems.
• Transmission Technique: T he transm ission technique refers to the type of signals that
are exchanged over the physical transm ission medium. The m ost common techniques
used with LAN d ata links are called baseband and broadband transmission.
• Network Topology: T he network topology identifies th e logical shape th a t device
interconnections take. Common LAN d a ta link topologies are the bus, the ring, and
the star.
• Access Control M ethod: The access control m ethod describes the method by which
communicating systems control their access to the transm ission medium. Commonly
used access control m ethods are contention, tokenpassing, and circuit switching.
2.4.1 Transmission M edia
The four general types of transm ission m edia th a t are used most often in constructing
local area networks are twisted-wire pairs, coaxial cable, fiber optics links, and wireless
transmission.
Twisted pair cabling is th e cheapest and easiest to install. However it also poses the
greatest technological challenge to designers. Obtaining speeds greater than several hundred
18
kbps requires specially constructed and term inated tw isted pair instzdlations. Commercial
networks, such as LocalTalk (at 230 kbps) and lObaseT [71] ( 10Mbps E thernet), have
been offered over carefuly designed tw isted pair cables. Coaxial cable provides a more
rigidly defined transmission medium, allowing signals o f significantly higher bandwidth
to be carried without distortion. It also provides higher levels of protection from external
electromagnetic interference (EMI) corrupting data, or from LAN signals adding to external
EMI. E thernet, and the IEEE802.3 variant, are significant examples of LANs initially based
on coaxial cabling. The drawback of coaxial cables is its higher costs of production and
installation compared to twisted pair cables.
Optical fibres promise, and deliver, vastly more bandw idth th an is achievable with
coaxial cable. They offer immunity to EM I, and relatively low signal attenuation thus al
lowing very long distances to be covered without repeaters. The bandwidth bottle neck
with current fibre links is the need to term inate and switch the d a ta electronically. Ongo
ing research in photonic switching fabrics [14][72] [73] and wavelength division multiplexing
[74][75] are offering solutions to these problems.
Wireless transmission can be used in a number o f different ways. It is often easier
to use microwave or infrared transmission links where it is difficult to physically inter
connect individual LAN cable segments. Wireless transm ission has disadvantages as well.
Interference is high and line-of-sight transm ission is necessary to mention a few.
2.4.2 Transmission Techniques
There are two general techniques th at can be used for tran sm ittin g signals over a physical
communication medium, baseband and broadband. W ith baseband transmission, the entire
bandwidth is used to transm it a single digital signal, and d a ta is carried on the transmission
19
medium in its original form. W ith broadband transmission, analog techniques are used
in which the available bandw idth may be sliced up into a number of channels. D ata is
superimposed upon a carrier signal th a t is modulated.
2.4.3 Network Topologies
There are three principal topologies th a t are employed by LAN d ata link technology these
are star, bus, and ring [3].
In a star configuration, there is a central point to which a group of systems is directly
connected. All transmissions from one system to another pass through the central point,
which may consist of a device th a t plays a role in managing and controlling communication.
In a bus topology each system is directly attached to a common communication
channel. As each message passes along the channel, each system receives it and examines
the destination address contained in it. If the message is addressed to it, the system accepts
it else the messasge is ignored.
In the ring topology, the cabling forms a loop, with a simple point-to-point connec
tion attaching each system to th e next around the ring. Each system acts as a repeater for
all signals it receives and retransm its them to the next system in the ring a t their original
signal strength. The operation is similar to that of bus topology. The system th a t originates
a message is generally responsible for determining th at a message has made its way all the
way around the ring and then not repeating the message, thus removing it from the ring.
2.4.4 Access Control M ethods
An access control scheme ensures intelligent information exchange in a network without
constant interference from transmissions from other nodes. The access schemes can be
20
broadly classified into three categories[7]. They are:
• Fixed Assignment Schemes
• Demand Assignment Schemes
• Random Assignment Schemes
In fixed assignment schemes, a portion of the communication channel is dedicated
to each attached node. Examples of fixed assignment scheme include time division multiple
access (TDMA), and frequency division multiple access (FDM A). But these schemes are
not very efficient when the traffic is bursty. Lack of flexibility in allocating bandwidth to
nodes and inefficient handling of bursty traffic are the m ajor deficiencies of these access
schemes for bursty traffic.
In demand assignment schemes, a statio n will have access to the entire bandwidth of
the network when it accesses the network; th a t is it can transm it at the full d ata rate of the
channel. The medium access control scheme ensures th at each node has a fair opportunity
of accessing the medium and th a t no bandwidth is allocated to nodes th at do not have
information to transm it. Examples of this scheme include polling and token passing[76].
In token passing, a token controls the right to access the communication channel. When
a station receives the token, it is allowed to transm it certain number of packets before it
transm its the token to the next node. If a node does not have any packets to send, it passes
the token to the next node immediately. This way, the bandwidth of the channel is used by
all the active stations of the network, and none of the bandwidth is dedicated to stations
th a t do not demand it.
21
In random assignment schemes, the entire bandwidth of the channel is used by any
of the stations at times determined by the stations themselves. Conflicts are resolved by
rescheduling transmissions at random times. This technique is used in ETHERNET and
IEEE 802.3 LANs.
Some o f th e most commonly used LAN d a ta link technologies are E thernet ( IEE802.3).
ARCnet, LocalTalk.
Ethernet or IEEE802.3 is a LAN d a ta link technology in which systems are attached
to a common transmission facility, such as coaxial cable or twisted-pair cable. A system
typically attem p ts to transm it whenever it has d ata to send. Ethernet is the most widely
used form of LAN d ata link technology.
ARCnet is a relatively low-speed form o f LAN in which all systems are attached to
a common coaxial cable. Like th e Token Bus form of LAN, a system transm its when it has
a token.
-A.nd LocalTalk is a low-speed LAN d a ta link technology which was developed by
Apple com puter. The systems are attached to a common cable. A given LocalTalk cable
can support a maximum of 32 stations, spanning a maximum distance o f 300 meters. It
uses a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (C SM A /C A ), to ensure aU
nodes share th e bus fairly [19].
All these are low speed networking technologies (in the less than 10Mbps range).
Some high speed technologies have been developed and are also in use. Fibre Distributed
D ata Interface (FD D I), IEEE802.6 (DQDB) MAN. and 100 Mbps Ethernet Standards (100
Base-X and 100 Beise-VG) are some of them.
22
In the 100 Base-X [77], the eth ern et’s present media-access-control (M AC) layer
protocol that is the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSM A /C D ) has
been retained in order to reduce the cost and risk o f upgrading an existing system to fzist
E thernet. In the CSM A/CD protocol, the nodes desiring network access first listen to the
network to determine if it’s in use. If th e network is free, the node will begin to transm it
but continues to listen to detect any collisions ( simultaneous transm ission by two or more
nodes). If a collision occurs, th e CSM A /CD protocol will ask the contending nodes to to
cease transmission and try again following a random ly timed delay. If several collisions
occur in succession, th e nodes double their delay interval and keep trying.
Although the CSM A/CD protocol eventually allows one node to gain access, the
delay between access request and acquisition is both variable and unbounded. Also, a
heavily loaded network spends considerable time resolving collisions, which is known as
thrashing. Thrashing causes available network bandw idth to drop well below 10-Mbps this
may lead to as much as 40% loss of system bandwidth in some cases.
The 100 Base-VG which is developed by Hewlett-Packard, IBM , and AT&T, seeks to
avoid thrashing and to offer guaranteed network access by operating with a dem and-priority
protocol at the MAC layer. This alternative Fast Ethernet can also handle token-ring
frames, thus providing an upgrade p ath for both Ethernet and token-ring users.
In the dem and-priority protocol, th e network hub arbitrates network access requests
based on round-robin polling. This results in full utilization of bandw idth. The hub polls
for port access requests creates a requester list, then grants access to ports in the list order.
Each requesting port gets a turn before th e poll is taken again.
23
The dem and-priority protocol also provides high priority access, allowing a port to
receive access ahead of its normal turn. Round-robin polling also determines high-priority
request handling and requires th a t «ill high priority users be serviced before norm al priority
users gain access. Normal priority users cannot be locked out however. If a norm al priority
access request has been pending for more than 250 msec, the hub autom atically upgrades
th a t request’s priority status so th at it is serviced in the high-priority sequence.
Fiber D istributed D ata Interface(FDDI) [77][78][79] is a set of standards developed
by the ANSI X3T9.5 Task Group. Ethernet and Token-Ring support only asynchronous
traffic. FDDI adds synchronous servie. Synchronous traffic consists of delay sensitive traf
fic such as voice packets, which need to be transm itted within a certain tim e interval.
Asynchronous traffic consists of d ata packets produced by various computer communica
tion applications, such as file transfer and mail. These packets can sustain reasonable delay,
but are generally througput sensitive in th a t higher throughput is more im portant than the
time for bits to travel over th e network.
An im portant feature of FDDI is its distributed nature, aU algotihms are distributed
th at is the control of rings is not centralized. W hen any component fails, other components
can reorganize and continue to function.
Regarding higher layer protocols, FDDI is compatible with CSM A/CD, token rings,
and token bus. Applications running over these LANs can easily work over FDDI without
any significant changes to upper layer software.
FDDI-II provides support for isochronous service in addition to the asynchronous
and synchronous service provided by FDDI(basic mode). If an application needs guaranteed
transmission of n bytes every T micro seconds, or some integral multiples of T micro seconds.
24
the application is said to require isochronous service[79].
Like FDDI, FDDI-II runs a t 100 M b/s. FDDI-II nodes can run in the FDDI mode.
If all stations on the ring are FD D I-II nodes then th e ring can switch to the hybrid mode,
which provides isochronous service in addition to basic mode services: but if even one node
is not an FDDI-II node then th e ring can not switch to the hybrid mode and continues in
the basic mode.
To provide periodic isochronous services, FDDI-II uses a periodic transmission policy
with transmission opportunities repeated every 125 micro seconds. This interval matches
the basic system reference frequency clock used in public tele-communications networks in
North America and Europe. A t this interval, a special frame called a “cycle” is generated.
At 100 M b/s, 1562.5 bytes can be transm itted in 125 micro seconds. Of these, 1560 bytes
are used for the cycle and 2.5 bytes are used as the intercycle preamble[79].
The 1560 bytes of the cycle are divided into 16 Wide Band Channels (W BCs) of 96
bytes each. Each WBC provides a bandw idth of 96 bytes per 125 micro seconds or 6.144
M b/s, sufficient to support one television broadcast, four high-quality stereo programs, or
96 telephone conversations.
The bytes of the cycles are preallocated to various channels for communication
between two or more stations on the rings. Some of the 16 WBCs may be allocated for
packet mode transmission and th e others for isochronous mode transmission. Allocation is
made using station management protocols.
Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB, IEEE802.6) [80][81][82] was designed as a
MAN technology th at can support asynchronous and isochronous services - allowing bursty
traffic to share the medium w ith traffic requiring guaranteed bandwidth. It is based on
25
two unidirectional fibre buses w ith a cell based structure. Cells are 53 octets o f which 5
octets are for the header and 48 octets for the payload. The buses may be implemented at a
variety of bit rates, utilising w hatever fibre technology is available. Each bus carries frames
every 125 microseconds, with each fram e being subdivided into as many cell slots as the
medium bitrate and physical layer overhead can support. The MAC protocol ensures th at
guaranteed number of cell slots are available to carry services requiring fixed bandw idth
connections, and th a t the remaining slots are shared equally between attached nodes. It
has been chosen to be the access network technology for the Switched M ultimegabit Digital
Service (SMDS).
HIP PI (High Performance Parallel Interface) [83] [84] is a simplex, packet oriented,
point-to-point interface for transferring d a ta at peak rates of 800 Mbps or 1600 Mbps over
distances upto 25 meters. A logical full duplex circuit is accomplished by using two H IPPI
interfaces.
The HIPPI standard is divided into six sections:
• Physical interface (H IPPI-PH )
• Switch control (HIPPI-SC)
• Framing protocol (H IP P I-F P )
• Link encapsulation (H IPPI-LE)
• Memory interface (H IPPI-M I)
• Intelligent peripheral interface (H IPPI-IPI)
HIPPI-PH standard defines th e physical layer. The specifications include use of one
or two copper twisted-pair 100 pin cables for point to point connection over a distance of
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o t the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
26
25 meters. D ata tranasfers are performed and flow controlled in increments of bursts, each
burst has upto 256 words.
HIPPI-SC standard deflnes the control for the H IPPI physical layer switches.
H IPPI-FP standard defines d a ta framing. Large block d ata transfers, with framing
to split the d ata into smaller bursts of 256 words of 32 or 64 bits each are allowed. H IPPI-FP
provides a connectionless d ata service and best effort delivery of data.
HIPPI-LE standard defines the protocol data unit(PD U ) format and interface for
transporting ISO 8802-2 (IEEE 802.2) logical link control(LLC) PDUs over HIPPI.
HIPPI-M I standard defines a protocol and formats by which an external device gains
access to a memory sub-system of another device.
H IPPI-IPI standard supports information transfer between one or more hosts and
peripheral systems.
H IPPI is a d a ta channel, it is used to link super computers and work stations on
giga-bit-per-second back planes. HIPPI-SC switches can connect a number of computer
systems «is a LAN.
H IPPI is very popular as a network interface because of it’s speed and connection
oriented hardware protocol. It uses crossbar switches for interconnection. A H IPPI crossbar
switch is an interconnection m atrix with H IPP I interfaces. Each simplex H IPPI coming into
the switch can be connected to one going out. The connections are made electrically and
follow the HIPPI-SC protocol.
HIPPI-SC describes two modes of switch addressing. One is called “Source Routing”
mode in which a 24-bit string of port numbers is provided to give the explicit route through
a series of connected switches. The other mode, called “Logical Address” mode, requires
27
th a t each switch have look-up tables to m ap from 12-bit Logical Addresses to physical ports.
This mode is preferred for networking.
2.5 Performance Requirements of a Broadband Network
T he broadband network is designed to support a wide variety of services. These services
are low speed, medium speed and very high speed. Low speed services include telemetry,
telecontrol, telealarm, voice, telefax, low speed d ata transfer. Medium speed services include
hifidelity sound, video telephony, high speed d ata transfer. Very high speed services include
high quality video distribution, video library, video education, teleradiolog}' and so on. A
transfer mode for such a network must be very flexible in the sense th at it m ust transport
a wide range of natural bit rates [13][85]and it should be able to cope with services which
have a fluctuating natural bit rate with respect to time.
A transfer mode is basically characterized by the switching technique used in the
switching nodes of the network. The reliability of a network is measured in term s of semantic
transparency and time transparency [86].
2.5.1 Semantic Transparency
Semantic transparency determines the capability of the network to transport information
from the source to the destination with a limited number of errors. The types of errors
introduced by the network may differ from one transfer mode to another. In a network,
errors can be classified as transmission errors and switching/multiplexing errors.
Transmission errors occur due to imperfections in the transmission medium, since
the transmission medium is only concerned with bits, transmission errors are only bit errors.
28
Switching and multiplexing operations occur at higher layers in the OSI model and the
processing is done at the packet level. T he switching/multiplexing errors comprise of both
bit errors and packet errors.
• Bit Error Rate
The bit error rate (BER)is defined as the number of bits which arrive errorneously.
divided by the total number of bits transm itted.
B E R = N u m b e r o f erroneous bits
--------------------------- i------------------------ (2.1)
Total N u m b e r o f bits sent
Erroneous bit is a bit which arrives at the destination with a value other than th at
transm itted. The bit errors can occur either as isolated errors (singular errors) or
group errors (burst errors). Isolated errors are mainly caused by noise and system
imperfections and burst errors are caused by packet errors, maintenance actions and
impulse noise.
• Packet Error Rate
In packet oriented networks, bits are grouped in packets and the packet error rate
(P E R ) is defined as th e number of erroneous packets over the total number packets
transm itted.
P E R = N u m b e r o f erroneous packets
( 2 .2 )
Total num ber o f packetssent
Packet errors are mainly caused by errors of the header. An incorrect value in the
29
header will either cause th e switching system to discard the packet or to misinterpret
the header. The m isinterpretation will cause a misrouting of the packet and this
results in a missing packet at the correct destination and an additional packet at an
incorrect destination. Taking into account the lost packets and inserted packets, PLR
(packet loss rate) and PIR (packet insertion rate) can be defined. PLR is defined as
the ratio of the number of lost packets to the to tal number of packets sent.
P L R = N u m b e r o f lost packets
__________________ L______ (2.3)
Total number o f packets sent
PIR is defined as the ratio of the number of inserted packets to the total num ber of
packets sent.
P I R = N um ber o f in serte d packets

-------------------------- (2.4)
T o ta l number o f packets sent
The performance of a network can be enhanced by employing Forward Error Correc
tion (FEC)[87] techniques or by retransmission if an error is detected using the A utom atic
Repeat Request (ARQ) protocols. FEC techniques use complex coding schemes like Ham
ming, Golay, BCH (Bose-Chaudhri-Hocquenghem) codes to add redundancy on the bit level.
ARQ techniques rely on the retransmission of inform ation which was not received correctly.
The coding techniques mentioned above cam be employed for the detection and correction
of the errors or ju st for the detection of errors.
The FEC and ARQ techniques should be judicially employed because the complex
error correcting codes lead to long processing delays, and frequent retransmission of infor
m ation wiU lead to increased traffic and congestion in the network[86], thus slowing down
30
the network.
2.5.2 T im e Transparency
Time transparency determines the capability of the network to transport the information
through the network from source to destination in a minimal amount of time.
Time transparency is dependent on two param eters; delay and delay jitte r. Delay
is defined as the time difference between the sending of th e information at the source and
the receiving of this information at the receiver. The delay D can be different for every
information block, and can have a minimum value of Dm and a maximum vzdue of D \f .
The difference D m — Dm is called delay jitter.
The delay in a network is caused because of the tim e taken by the information to
travel from the source to the destination, this is known as transfer delay Delay can
also occur because of the tim e taken for processing of the signalling and user information in
the various network components, this is called processing delay (Dp). The total delay (D)
is the sum of Dt and Dp.
D = Dt + Dp (2..5)
The time transparency of a network can be enhanced by improving the quality of
the physical medium and reducing the processing overhead to a minimum.
2.6 Transfer Modes
The various transfer (figure 2.3) modes considered for the development of a single universal
network are:
31
• Circuit Switching
• M ultirate Circuit Switching
• Fast Circuit Switching
• Packet Switching
• Fast Packet Switching
2.6.1 Circuit Switching
In this transfer mode, a circuit is established for the complete duration of th e connection.
This is based on the TDM (tim e division multiplexing) principle to transport th e information
from one node to the other. This technique is also known as STM(synchronous transfer
mode).
The information is transfered with a certain repetition frequency, th e basic unit of
this repetition frequency is called a time slot. Several connections are time multiplexed over
one link by joining together several time slots in a frame, which is again repeated with a
certain frequency. A connection will always use the same tim e slot in the fram e during the
complete duration of the session. Switching of circuits is controlled by a translation table
which contains th e relation of the incoming link and the slot number, to th e outgoing link
and the associated slot number.
Circuit switching is very inflexible, because once th e duration of th e time slot is
fixed, the related bit rate is also fixed thus making it unsuitable for supporting a variety of
services with varying bandwidth requirements. Also the time slots reserved for a particular
circuit are unavailable for use by others even when no useful d a ta is being exchanged. Hence
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33
circuit switching has been considered unsuitable for a universal broadband network.
2.6.2 M ultirate Circuit Switching:
To overcome the inflexibility of only a single bit rate, offered by circuit switching, a more
enhanced version was developed called m ultirate circuit switching(MRCS)[86],
In this mode, like in simple circuit switching, time division multiplexing with a fixed
basic channel rate is employed. But every connection can be built as a multiple of the basic
channel ra te hence one connection can allocate ‘n ’ basic channels.
T he main problem with this mode was the selection of a basic rate. If the basic
rate is selected to be the minimal required channel rate, then a very large num ber of basic
channels would be required for supporting high bit rate services like HDTV or medical
image transmission. This will make the management and correlation of all these channels
very complicated. On the other hand if th e basic bit rate is selected to be large, then the
waste of th e bandwidth becomes too large for low bit rate applications like voice and low-
speed d ata communications.
To overcome this problem of selecting a basic rate, another type of circuit switching
called M ultirate Circuit Switching with different baaic channel rates was developed. Here
channels which are multiples of the basic rate are employed.
Both the above mentioned modes suffer from their inability to cope efficiently with
sources generating d ata of fluctuating and bursty nature. The network resources are occu
pied even when the sending term inal is idle. Hence multirate circuit switching wzis consid
ered unsuitable for a universal broadband network.
34
2.6.3 Fast Circuit Switching:
In order to extend the concepts of circuit switching to sources w ith fluctuating and bursty
nature, fast circuit switching (PCS) was developed [86]. The resources in the PCS network
are only allocated when information is sent, and released when no inform ation is sent.
At call set-up, users request a connection with a bandwidth equal to some integer
multiple of the basic rate. The system will not allocate the resources immediately, it will
store in the switch, the information on the required bandwidth and th e selected destination,
and allocates a header in the signalling channel, identifying th at connection. When the
source starts sending information, the header will indicate th at the source has information,
requiring from the switch to allocate the necessary resources immediately.
In order to build a system which can support different inform ation rates. ECS and
MRCS were combined, but the complexity of designing and controlling such a system lead
to its rejection by the ITU-T as a potential solution for a universal broadband network.
2.6.4 Packet Switching:
In packet switching networks, user information is encapsulated in packets which contmn
additional inform ation in the header for routing, error correction, flow control etc in the
network.
The packet switching networks like X.25 [88]were developed in the sixties when the
quality of of the transmission links was poor. To offer an acceptable end-to-end performance,
complex protocols for performing error and flow control were employed on each link. Also
the packets were of variable length and this necessitated a complex buffer management [89]
inside the network leading to a large delay inside the network.
35
The large delays inside the network because of complex protocols makes it very
difficult to apply packet switching technique for real time services and high speed services.
2.6.5 Frame Relaying and Frame Switching:
These techniques evolved from packet switching[89], they have reduced functionalities than
X.25 and hence higher throughput can be achieved. Frame switching can support a bit rate
of about 4 to 8 Mbps and frame relaying can support a bit rate of about 140 Mbps.
2.6.6 Fast Packet Switching:
Fast packet switching [86] is nothing but packet switching with minimal functionalities in
the network. This coupled with the improved quality of the physical transm ission medium
will allow the systems to operate at a much higher rate than usual packet switching. The
development of fast packet switching led to th e development of Asynchronous Time Division
Multiplexing (ATD) [90] and this evolved into Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM ). These
schemes allow an asynchronous operation between the sender clock and the receiver clock.
The ATM network is capable of supporting any service irrespective of its character
istics such as the bit rate, its quality requirements or its bursty nature. A network based
on such a service independent transfer technique is flexible and future safe in th at any
changes in the characteristics of the services can be supported without modifying the ATM
network. The ATM network is efficient in the use of its available resources. Every available
resource can be used by any service. Since only one network needs to be designed, con
trolled, manufactured and m aintained, the overall costs of the system will be smaller [31].
These advantages of the ATM network lead to its approval by the ITU -T as the transfer
mode for a universal broadband network.
36
2.6.7 Performance of ATM:
The information field length of an ATM cell is fixed and relatively smzill (48 octets) so delay
and delay jitte r are small enough to support real time services. Also since th e ATM header
has limited functions, processing in the ATM nodes is simple and can be done at very high
speeds (150 Mbps is easily attainable) [27].
ATM operates in a connection oriented mode, the various param eters like band
width, quality of service (QOS) are negotiated before the resources are allocated to the
user for information transfer over the network. This guarantees a very low (between
10~®andl0“ ^^) [86] packet loss ratio (PLR) thus unlike in other packet oriented trans
fer modes like X.25 making flow control on a link by link basis unnecessary. Also because
of the high quality of the physical transmission medium, error protection on a link by link
basis can be om itted [30] [86].
The ATM transfer mode can provide very high transfer rates depending on the type
of physical layer available, transfer rates as high as 600 Mbps are easily attainable[29].
2.7 Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is basically a digital user interface to the digital
telephone system built during the late 1970’s and 1980’s.
The end user device connects to an ISDN node through a User-Network Interface
(UNI) protocol. The typical ISDN topology is as shown in figure 2.4 [91].
The ISDN model is based on functional groupings and reference points. T E l and
TE2 are end user terminals, the term inal adapter (TA) is a device th a t allows non ISDN
terminals to operate over ISDN lines. The network term inator (N T l) is device which
u
LT/ET
Network (SS7,
packet, cellular,
satellite, etc.)
TE2 TA NT2 NTl LT/ET
Figure 2.4: Typical ISDN Topology
connects the 4-wire subscriber wiring to the 2-wire local loop; it is responsible for the
physical layer functions such as signaling synchronization and timing, and the network
term inator (NT2) contains the layers 2 and 3 protocol functions of the OSI model [92].
The T E l connects to the ISDN through a twisted pair 4-wire digital link. This link
is tim e division multiplexed to provide three channels B,B and D (2B4-D). The B channels
operate at a speed of 64 kbps and the D channel at 16 kbps. The 2B-f D is called Basic R ate
Interface (BRI). The B channels are used to carry the user payload (voice, video, d ata).
The D channel is used for out of band signalling.
ISDN also supports another type of interface called the Prim ary Rate interface
(P R I). It is obtained by multiplexing multiple B and D channels onto a higher speed inter
face. The PRI can provide a bandwidth o f 1.544 Mbps (used in North America and Jap an )
by multiplexing 23 B channels and a D channel and is called as 23B4-D or HI channel.
38
2.7.1 ISD N Layers:
ISDN covers the bottom three layers (Physical. D ata Link, Network) of the OSI model as
shown in figure 2.5 [91].
User Defined
Network
LAPD Data link (Q.921)
Physical
Figure 2.5: The ISDN Layers
Layer 1 (the physical layer) uses either the basic rate interface (BRI) or prim ary
rate interface (PR I). Layer 2 (th e d a ta link layer) contains the Link Access procedure for
D-channel (LAPD) protocol, and th e Layer 3 (the network layer) messages are used to
manage ISDN connections on th e B-channels.
The ISDN layer 3 messages (Q.931 messages) are used to manage ISDN connections
on the B channels. LAPD ensures th a t the Q.931 messages are transm itted across th e link.
The LAPD frame format is as shown in figure 2.6[REF]. The address field contains several
control bits, a Service Access Point Identifier (SAPI), and a Terminal End Point Identifier
(TEI). The SAPI and TEI fields are known collectively as the D ata Link Control Identifier
(DLCI) [92]
The SAPI identifies the entity where the data link layer services are provided to the
layer above. A SAPI value of ‘0’ indicates th a t the frame is carrying signalling inform ation.
73
CD
■o
I
I
%
C/)
o'
3
CD
8 E J cr;
SAPI
c5' A| 1
E!
A| TEI
3
CD
«S'
C <3
p. to Information
3 "
Address Control FCS Flag
CD
(ISDN layer 3)
CD tr*
■o >
IC 0
a
o
3
■o 1 Link Control field Q.931 messages for the
o (sequence numbers, establishment and
ACKs, NAKs, fiow disestablishment of B channels
&
control, link addresses,
o SAPs in the terminal)
c
■o
CD
C/)
œ
o'
3
CO
CO
40
a SAPI value of 16 indicates th a t it is carrying user traffic and a SAPI value of 63 indicates
th at m anagement information is being carried in the frame.
T he T E I identifies either a single term inal, or multiple terminals th a t are operating
on the BRI link. The TEI is assigned autom atically by a separate assignment procedure.
A TEI value of all Is identifies a broadcast connection.
I - 2
ID
O
CQ
y
J
§c
t
O
i
(U
u
15
>
o. I
0)
13 •a
I
c (0
I
%
I ,o A
3
?
I u a
00
Figure 2.7: The Q.931 Message
The Q.931 message form at is as shown in figure 2.7. The protocol discriminator
distinguishes between user-network call control messages other layer 3 protocol messages.
The call reference identifies the specific ISDN call at the local UNI. The Message Type
identifier identifies the message function. The contents of th e O ther Information Elements
41
field depend on the message type. Some of the Q.931 messages are shown in table 1 [91].
IS D N L a y e r 3 M essa g es T he short comings of ISDN are its limited bandwidth, lack of
C all E s ta b lis h m e n t M e ssa g e s C a ll D is e s ta b lis h m e n t M e ssa g e s
ALERTING DETACH
CALL PROCEEDING DETACH ACKNOWLEDGE
CONNECT DISCONNECT
CONNECT ACKNOWLEDGE RELEASE
SETUP RELEASE CO M PLETE
SETUP ACKNOWLEDGE
C all In f o r m a tio n P h a s e M e ssa g e s M isc e lla n e o u s M e ssa g e s
RESUME CANCEL
RESUME ACKNOWLEDGE CANCEL ACKNOWLEDGE
RESUME R EJEC T CANCEL R EJEC T
SUSPEND CONGESTION CONTROL
SUSPEND ACKNOWLEDGE FACILITY
SUSPEND R E JEC T FACILITY ACKNOWLEDGE
USER INFORMATION FACILITY R EJEC T
INFORMATION
REGISTER
REG ISTER ACKNOWLEDGE
REGISTER R EJEC T
STATUS
STATUS ENQUIRY
Table 2.1: ISDN Layer 3 Messages
flow control in th a t ISDN preallocates bandwidth to users, this is not a good way of handling
bursty traffic which computers generate, and there is no guarantee th a t a packet pushed
into the network will make it to the destination. These shortcomings and the development
of ATM, SD H /SO N ET and fiber optic technology are responsible for its failure.
42
2.7.2 The need for B-ISDN
The highest bit-rate of 1.544 Mbps offered by ISDN is insufficient for the connection of local
area networks , or transmission of moving images with good resolution. This demand for
higher speed channels led to the development of Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN).
B-ISDN is designed to suport different kinds of applications and custom er categories.
It will support services with both constant and variable bit rates, data, voice, still and
moving picture transmission and multimedia services which combine data, voice and picture
service components.
B-ISDN is designed to become a universal network, and Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM) is the transfer mode for implementing it [14][13].
2.8 B-ISDN Model:
The reference configuration and functional groupings of B-ISDN shown in figure 2.8 [91]
are similar to those of NISDN. The reference points are Æ, 5 s , T s , U s, these are as defined
for NISDN. The functional groupings are labeled as B -N T l, B-NT2 (Broadband Network
Termination 1 or 2), B -T E l, B-TE2 (Broadband Terminal Equipment 1 or 2) and B-TA
(Broadband Terminal A dapter).
Reference points and functional groupings are ju st ab stract concepts which are useful
for understanding the B-ISDN architecture. The similarities between ISDN and B-ISDN
are in concept only, it is not possible to upgrade an ISDN interface by simply supplementing
it with B-ISDN functional groupings and reference points.
43
§
su
.. H
Figure 2.8: B-ISDN Reference Configuration
44
2.8.1 B-ISDN ReferenceModel:
The B-ISDN reference model is based on th e OSI reference model. The functions of the
layers and the relations of the layers with respect to each other are described in a protocol
reference model (PRM ) as shown in figure 2.9 [21] [86].
Management plane
Control plane User plane
Higher layer protocols Higher layer protocols VQ
ATM Adaptation Layer
ATM Layer
Physical Layer
Figure 2.9: The BISDN ATM Protocol Reference Model
The B-ISDN model contains three planes. The user plane (U-Plane) is responsible
for providing user information transfer, flow control, and recovery operations. T he control
plane (C-Plane) is responsible for setting up, releasing and m anaging network connections.
The management plane (M -Plane) is responsible for coordination of all the planes (plane
management) and for m anaging the entities in the layers, performing operation, adminis
tration and management services (layer management )[21].
For each plane a layered approach as in OSI is used with independence between
layers. The physical layer is similar to the layer 1 of the OSI model, and mainly performs
functions at the bit level. The ATM layer performs operations typically found in layers 2
45
and 3 of the OSI model. T he ATM A daptation layer (AAL) combines the features of layers
4,5 and 7 of the OSI model. The B-ISDN layer functions are shown in figure 2.10. and are
described in detail in the next chapter.
2.8.2 B-ISDN Services
The ITU-T has classified the services offered by B-ISDN into interactive services and dis
tribution services. Interactive services comprise of conversational, messaging and retrieval
services. Distribution services are further classified as distribution services without user-
individual presentation control and distribution services with user-individual presentation
control [86] [91].
Conversational services are interactive dialogues with real-time operations. There is
no store and forward operations occuring between the service user and service provider. Ex
amples of such services are: Broadband videotelephony, videoconference, video surveillance,
high-speed unrestricted digital information transm ission (for LAN, MAN interconnection),
high volume file transfer, high resolution immage communication (for professional images,
medical images).
Messaging services include user to user communications, such as video mail service
(Electronic mailbox service for the transfer of moving pictures and sound) or document
mail service (Electronic mailbox service for documents containing text, graphics,still and
moving picture inform ation and voice), which can be done on a conversational basis, or on
demand.
Retrieval services fall into the store and forward category where a user can obtzdn
information stored for public use. This inform ation can be retrieved on an individual
basis from the service provider to the service user. Video retrieval (for entertainm ent and
46
Layer functions Names of layers
Convergence CS
AAL
Segmentation & reassembley SAR
Generic flow control

Cell header processing
VPI/VCI processing ATM
I
c
Cell muxing & demuxing
I Cell rate decoupling
I HEC header processing

Cell delineation TC
Transmission frame adaption
PL
Transmission frame generation/recovery
Bit timing
PM
Physical medium
CS Convergence sublayer
SAR Segmentation and reassembley sublayer
AAL ATM adaption layer
ATM Asynchronous transfer mode
TC Transmission convergence sublayer
PM Physical medium sublayer
PL Physical layer
Figure 2.10: B-ISDN Layer Functions
remote education), high-resoiution image retrieval (for entertainm ent, rem ote education,
professional image communication and medical image communications), docum ent retrieval
(from information centres, archives) and d ata retrieval services are some of th e examples.
Distribution services without user individual presentation control include conven
tional broadcast services such as television and radio. This service provides continues flow
of information where users can obtain unlimited access to the information. High speed un
restricted digital information distribution, document distribution (for electronic newspaper,
electronic publishing), video information distribution (for the distribution of video/audio
signals), television programm e distribution (of both existing quality TV and high-definition
TV) services are some of the examples.
Distribution services with user-individual presentation control allows the central
source to distribute the information to a large or small number of users based on some type
of cyclical repitition for example full channel broadcast videography (for tele-advertising,
news retrieval, remote education and training).
C hapter 3
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology has been accepted by the standards
bodies to be the transfer mode for a universal broadband network, the B-ISDN. Section
3.1 describes the typical topology of an ATM network. Section 3.2 describes the ATM
connection identifiers, and section 3.3 describes the various ATM switch architectures. The
feasibility of multicasting over ATM is discussed in section 3.4. Section 3.5 and 3.6 describe
in detail the ATM and ATM A daptation Layer (AAL) layers respectively. Different types
of AAL have been defined for different classes of services, section 3.7 describes in detail the
functioning of AAL 1, AAL 2, AAl 3 /4, and AAL 5. A properly constructed ATM network
m ust manage traffic fairly, and should be able to adapt to unforseen traffic pattern s. The
various methods proposed for congestion and traffic control are discussed in section 3.8
3.1 ATM Topology:
ATM has been selected by ITU -T, ANSI, and th e ATM Forum to be the transfer mode for
B-ISDN [13][23]. It provides a high speed, low-delay multiplexing and switching network to
support any type of user traffic, such as voice, d ata, or video.
48
49
ATM segments and multiplexes user traffic into small, fixed length units called
cells. The cell is 53 octets, w ith 5 octets reserved for the cell header. Each cell is identified
with virtual circuit identifiers contained in the cell header. An ATM network uses these
identifiers to relay the traffic through th e high speed switches from the sending customer
premises equipm ent(CPE) to the receiving CPE.
An ATM network consists of ATM switches interconnected by point to point ATM
links or interfaces. ATM switches support two kinds of interfaces, they are user-network
interface(UNI) and network-node interface! NNI) [93][94]. UNI connects ATM end systems
to an ATM switch. There are two forms of UNI, they are public UNI and private UNI.
Public UNI defines the interface between a public service ATM network and a private ATM
switch. A private UNI defines an ATM interface with an end user and a private ATM switch.
T he NNI can be defined as an interface connecting two ATM switches, precisely NNI is any
physical or logical link across two ATM switches which exchange the NNI protocol.
The ATM interfaces and topology are organized around the ISDN model[REF]. -A
possible ATM btised topology can be as shown in figure 3.1. The wide area network] WAN )
can be a public network offered by a public telecommunications operator[9I]]. The ATM
nodes at this interface use a public UNI to the CPE ATM nodes. The C P E ATM nodes
connect with private UNIs to the various equipment on the user’s side.
3.2 ATM Connection Identifiers:
ATM networks are fundam entally connection oriented, a virtual connection has to be setup
across the ATM network before any d a ta transfer is done. An ATM circuit can be a
virtual path connection] V PC ) or a virtual channel connection] V CC)[93][94]. The VPC is
50
Workstations
Pri ATM
Video UNI switch
ATM
switch
W ide area
network
ATM
switch
Workstations
Video
ESi (" atm

switch
T LAN
Figure 3.1: A Typical ATM Topology
51
identified by the virtual path identifier] VP I) and th e VCC is identified by th e virtual channel
identifier]VCI). The V PI and the VCI are placed in the cell header and are assigned to the
connection at the time of connection establishm ent. A virtual path is a bundle of virtual
channels, all of which are switched transparently across the ATM network on the basis of
the common VPI. T he manner in which the VP Is or VCIs are processed in the network
is not yet defined in the ATM standards. All VCIs and VPIs have only local significance
across a particular link, and are rem apped as appropriate at each switch.
3.3 ATM Switching:
The ATM switch is one of the most im portant components of a virtual connection. A switch
fabric is necessary to establish a connection between an arbitrary pair of inputs and outputs
within a switch node.
A switching element is the basic unit of a switch fabric[31]. At th e input port the
routing information of an incoming cell is analysed and the cell is then directed to the
correct output port. In general, a switching element consists of an interconnection network,
an input controller ]IC) for each incoming link and an output controller ]0 C ) for each
outgoing link as shown in figure 3.2[86]. To prevent excessive cell loss in th e case of internal
collisions, buffers have to be provided within the switching element.
Arriving cells will be synchronized to the internal clock by the IC. The OC transports
cells which have been received from th e interconnection network towards th e destination.
ICs and OCs are coupled by the interconnection network.
The interconnection network can be constructed by using a rectangular matrix of
cross points ]M atrix Type) as shown in figure 3.3[86]. The buffers can be placed at any of
52
oc
Interconnection
network
OC
IC Input controller
OC Output controller
Figure 3.2: Basic Switching Element
the input or o u tp u t controllers or a t the cross points [95], (the figure shows buffers placed
at the outp u t controllers) each design has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The C entral Memory switching element show in figure 3.4 has all th e input and
output controllers attached directly to a common memory which is accessible for all the
input and o u tp u t controllers [95].
Since all the switching element buffers share one common memory, a significant
reduction of the to tal memory requirements can be achieved in comparison w ith physically
separated buffers. On the other hand, a high degree of internal parallelism is necessary to
keep the frequency of memory access within a realizable range.
In the Bus Type switching element, the interconnection network can be realized by
a high speed tim e division multiplexed (TDM) bus as shown in figure 3.5[86]. The total
capacity of the bus should at least be equal to the sum of the capacities of ail input links for
conflict free transm ission. Buffers are only required at the output controllers because each
input controller can transfer its cell to the destination before the next cell arrives whereas
several cells may arrive at the same output controUer[95].
53
CN
^ CS X)
Figure 3.3: Matrix Switching Element W ith O utput Buffers
OC
Memory
OC
IC Input controller
Figure 3.4: Central Memory Switching Element
54
OC
TDM-Bus
OC
IC Input controller
TDM Time division multiplexing
Figure 3.5: Bus Type Switching Element
oo
In the Ring Type switching element shown in figure 3.6, all input and ou tp u t con
trollers are interconnected via a ring network. The ring structure has the advantage over
the bus structure in th a t a time slot can be used several times within one rotation.
1 1
OC
IC Input controller
Figure 3.6: Ring-Type Switching Element
The switching elements can be combined to form single stage networks (Extended
Switching M atrix Network, Funnel Type Network, Shuffle Exchange Network) and multi
stage networks (Banyan, Delta Networks) [86][95].
The basic operation of an ATM switch involves routing, queuing and header trans
lation. This is done as shown in figure 3.7 [86], the incoming ATM cells are physically
switched from an inlet /,• to an outlet O j , at the same time their header value is translated
from an incoming value ‘a ’ to an outgoing value ‘b’. The values of th e headers are unique on
each incoming and outgoing links individually, but identical headers are allowed on different
links.
The translation table is used for translating the header values. From the table it can
be seen that all cells which have a header value of ‘x ' on the incoming link Ii are switched
to outlet Oi and should have a new header value of ‘k’. All cells w ith a header ‘x ’ on link
56
I I I I
at
at
CTitf*
1
S
S— S DA
I cro'tf
: 3
§
Q
3 —
-
f
X
>
I 1
s
X X M X >" %
I.
X
> Vi
"S
u
Vi
Figure 3.7: ATM Switching Principle
Ol
In are also switched to outlet 0 \ , but their header should be translated to *n’.
A buffer is required for the switch to avoid collisions, the type of buffer to be used and
its placement is a widely discussed issue, ITU-T and ATM Forum have not recommended
the use of any particular switch design. There are several ATM switches being used each
of them different in their use of switching elements and buffer selections [33][95].
3.4 Multicasting:
Some data services (electronic mail) and distributive services (video library access. TV dis
tribution etc.) are characterized by point-to-multipoint communication [96]. This capability
can be supported by an ATM switch fabric. For this purpose, an ATM switching element
must be able to transm it copies of an incoming cell to different outlets.
A multicast connection appears much like normal virtual connection from the sender's
perspective. Cells leave the originating ATM layer on a single V PI/V C I, and are then prop
agated and replicated throughout the network as necessary. M ulticast switches replicate
incoming cells, mapping different V PI/V CIs and port numbers to each copied cell [30][93].
ATM connections can be setup as permanent virtual connections(PVC) or switched
virtual connections(SVC). A PVC is connection setup by some external mechanism, typi
cally network m anagem ent, in which a set of switches between an ATM source and destina
tion are programmed with the appropriate VPI and VCI values. AN SVC is a connection
th a t is setup autom atically through a signalling protocol [97][98]. Unlike PVCs, SVCs do
not require any m anual interaction and are easier to setup.
•58
3.5 The Asynchronous Transfer Mode Layer:
The ATM layers primary responsibility is the management of the sending and receiving of
cells between the user node and the network node [32][33]. The ATM cell contains a 48
octet information field and a 5 octet header as shown in figure 3.8. The octets are sent in
an increasing order, starting with octet 1 of the header. W ithin an octet, the bits are sent
in a decreasing order, starting with bit 8 [86].
Bit
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1
2
Header
5 Octets
Octet
Information
Field
48 Octets
53
Figure 3.8: ATM Cell S tructure
At the UNI. the header structure is as shown in figure 3.9 [86]. The first field
contains four bits for the Generic Flow C ontrol(G FC ). The second field is th e routing
field, subdivided into a VCI field of 16 bits and a V PI field of 8 bits. A Payload Type
Identifier(PTI) field is coded in three bits, it identifies th e type of traffic residing in the
cell. The Cell Loss Priority(C LP) field is a 1 bit value. If CLP is set to 1. the cell is
subject to being discarded by the network. The cell has a higher priority if CLP is set to 0
59
w
(L U
> >
H
k
u
u
> EC
V)
U
Pw gL u
Ü > >
Figure 3.9: Header S tructure at the UNI
60
and is treated with more care than the cell in which the CLP bit is set to 1. The Header
Error Control(HEC) field consists of 8 bits, it is an error check field, which can also correct
single bit errors. The HEC is calculated on th e 5 octet header. An adaptive error detection
and correction m ethod is employed by the ATM. The transm itter calculates the HEC value
on the first four octets of the header using th e polynomial generated by the header bits
(excluding the HEC field) mult plied by 8 and dividing this polynomial by the generator
polynomial i® + + ar -f- l.T h e coset value 01010101 is XORed with the 8 bit remainder
and the result is placed in the last octet of th e header. The complimentary calculation is
performed at the receiver.
At the NNI, the header strucure as shown in figure 3.10 [91] is identical to the one
at the UNI except for the GFC field which is replaced by 4 additional VPI bits. This results
in a VPI field of 12 bits at the NNI.
The VCI, VPI, and other parts of th e first four octets of the cell can be coded in
various formats to identify non-user payload cells. There several preassigned cell header
values some of them are shown in table 2 [86].
3.6 ATM Adaptation Layer:
The AAL is an essential p art of the ATM network, it conveys the user traffic to the cell
based network. The AAL maps the user, control, management PDUs into th e information
field of one or more consecutive ATM cells of a virtual connection, and vice versa[33]. For
the transfer of user traffic, the AAL operates a t the end points of the virtual connection
and does not operate within the ATM network. For control and management traffic. AAL
is invoked at the network node of the UNI.
61
r-flU—
U
ri M
u
>
H
Qu
u
eu u g
> >
M M
u
> >
00
Figure 3.10: Header Structure at the NNI
62
C ell ty p e V PI VCI PTI CLP

Unassigned cells 00000000 00000000 00000000 - 0
Meta-signalling cells xxxxxxxx 00000000 00000001 0A0 B
General broadcast cells xxxxxxxx 00000000 00000010 0AA B
Point-to-point signalling cells xxxxxxxx 00000000 00000101 0AA B
Segment 0A M flow F4 cells yyyyyyyy 00000000 00000011 0A0 A
End-to-end GAM flow F4 cells yyyyyyyy 00000000 00000100 0 A0 A
Segment GAM flow F5 cells yyyyyyyy zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz 100 A
End-to-end GAM flow F5 cells yyyyyyyy zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz 10 1 A
Resource management cells yyyyyyyy zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz 1 10 A
User information cells yyyyyyyy vvvvvvvv vvvvvvvv 0 C U L
A ; Bit is available for use by th e ATM layer.

B : Bit is set by originating entity, but network may change value.
C : Explicit Forward Congestion Indication bit (E F C I).
L : Cell Loss Priority bit.
U : ATM layer user to ATM layer user indication bit.
X : Any VP I value. For VPI = 0, the VCI value is valid for signalling with local exchange,
y : Any V PI value,
z : Any VCI value other than 0.
V : Any VCI value above 0031 H.
Table 3.1: Pre-assigned Values of the Cell Header at the ATM Layer by ITU-T
The AAL is designed to support different types of applications and different types
of traffic, such as voice, video, and data. The services which will be transported over the
ATM layer are classified into Class A, Class B, Class C and Class D as shown in figure
3.11[91].
In Cléiss A, a time relation exists between source and destination. The bit rate is
constant and the service is connection oriented. Class A is designed to support a Constant
Bit Rate(CBR) requirement for applications like high quality video.
In Class B, again a time relation exists between source and destination, the bit rate
is v'ariable and the service is connection oriented. Class B is designed to support Variable
Bit Rate(VBR) applications like VBR video and audio.
In Class C, there is no time relation between the source and destination, the bit
63
Class A Class B Class C Class D
Timing between
source and
destination Required Not required
Bit rate Constant Variable
Connection
mode Connection oriented Connectionless
Figure 3.11: AAL Service Classes
rate is variable and the service is connection oriented. Examples of Class C services are
connection oriented d a ta transfer, and signalling.
In Class D, like in Class C, there is no time relation between the source and des
tination and the bit rate is variable but the service is connection less. Class D services
are typically connectionless d ata transport services like Switched Multi M egabit D ata ser-
vices(SMDS).
T he AAL is subdivided into SAR (Segmentation and Reassembly) and CS (Con
vergence Sublayer) sublayers[REF]. The SAR sublayer processes the user PDUs th at are
different in size and format into ATM cells at the sending side and reassembles th e cells into
user form atted PDUs at the receiving side. The CS performs functions like message identifi
cation, tim e clock recovery etc. The function of CS sublayer depends upon the type of traffic
being procesed by the AAL. For some AAL types supporting d a ta transport over ATM. the
CS is further divided into Common P art Convergence Sublayer(CPCS) and Service Specific
Convergence Sublayer (SSCS) [33][86][91].
64
3.7 Types of ATM Adaptation Layers:
AAL 1 is defined for CBR services[86], AAL 2 is being defined (not yet standardised) for
variable bit rate services for class B traffic, AAL 3 /4 is defined for d ata services, and AAL
5 is defined for connectionless d a ta services.
3.7.1 AAL T ype 1:
For CBR services, the bit rate is constant and synchronized between the sender and receiver.
ITU -T Recommendation 1.363 specifies th e AAL I services as- transfer of Service D ata
Units(SDUs) a t a constant bit rate, transfer of timing information between the source
and destination, transfer of d ata stru ctu re information, and indication of lost or errored
information. The Type I AAL is divided into CS and SAR sublayers [86][91].
At the sending side, the SAR sublayer accepts a 47 octet block of d ata from the
CS, and then adds a one octet SAR-PDU header to each block to form the SAR-PDU. At
the receiving end, the SAR sublayer gets a 48 byte block from the ATM layer, and then
separates the SAR-PDU header. The 47 octet block of SAR-PDU payload is then passed
to the CS.
The SAR-PDU as shown in figure 3.12 is composed of a single byte header and a
47 byte SAR-PDU payload. The header carries a 3 bit Sequenc Number(SN) which can
be used to detect lost or misinserted cells, a single bit CS layer indication(CSI) to indicate
the existence of a CS layer, and a 4 bit header protection field called the Sequence Number
Protection(SN P). The SNP is a 3 bit Cyclic Redundancy Check(CRC) of the SN field, with
an additional parity bit to protect the CRC.
Various CS functions are described in recommendation 1.363 for different services.
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66
The CS functions are expected to allow for synchronous service (where the source and
destination are locked to a network derived clock and asynchronous service (where the d ata
is clocked at a constant rate, but is not specifically locked to the clock of the network
carrying the cells).
Error correction is applied to bit errors where possible, and padding is applied to fill
in when cells are lost. The particular mechanisms depend on the service being carried, and
are agreed at connection establishment time [99]. There is no mechanism for retransmission
of lost cells.
3.7.2 AAL T ype 2:
AAL 2 is employed for VBR services where a timing relation is required between the source
and destination sides. Class B traffic such as VBR audio and video falls into this category.
Since the source is generating a variable bit rate, it is possible th a t cells are not completely
fUled [91], and th a t the filling level varies from from cell to cell, therefore more functions are
required in the SAR. The standards bodies have not yet defined AAL 2 fully, but ITU-T
has mentioned a possible way of implementing the SAR PDU as shown in figure 3.13 [86].
The SN field contains the sequence number to allow the recovery of lost or misrouted cells.
The IT (Information Type) field indicates the beginning of a message (BOM), continuation
of a message (COM ), end of a message (EOM ), or that the cell transports timing or other
information. BOM, COM or EOM indicate th a t the respective cell is the first, middle or
last cell of a message. The LI (Length Indicator) field indicates the number of useful bytes
in partially filled cells. The CRC field may allow the SAR to correct bit errors in the
SAR-SDU. The coding and length of each field are for further study.
The CS sublayer will have to perform functions like clock recovery, handling of lost
y
u
!=!t|i iI
Ç y
3 >v
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Figure 3.13: AAl 2 SAR Structure
68
or misdelivered cells, forward error correction. The CS functions and protocol are also still
for further study[REF].
3.7.3 AAL Type 3 /4 :
For Class C and Class D services, initially two types of AAL (AAL 3, AAL 4) were proposed
by the ITU-T [REF]. Realisation th at the functional differences were almost non existent
led to their merger into a single standard AAL 3/4 [33].
The Convergence sublayer of AAL 3 /4 is further subdivided into Service Specific
Convergence Sublayer (SSCS) and Common P art Convergence Sublayer (CPCS). T he CPCS
contains only the basic processing necessary to transport a variable sized block of d a ta across
a virtual connection. Additional functions such as flow control and the transm ission of lost
or corrupted data, are implemented within the SSCS.
The basic AAL 3 /4 CPCS function provides a non-assured service[REF], where each
user frame is contained in one AAL-SDU and transferred in one CPCS-PDU. In this mode
the AAL does not guarantee the successful transfer of any given AAL-SDU from peer to
peer.
Figure 3.14 shows a simplification of the transm ission process on a single virtual
connection [91]. AN AAL-SDU(user PDU) is encapsulated to generate a CPCS-PDU. This
is then segmented into a series of 44 byte SAR-PDU payloads, wrapped with 2 byte headers
and trailers to create 48 byte SAR-PDUs, and inserted into the payload fields o f cells for
transmission.
The CPCS-PDU encapsulation contains information which enables the CPCS func
tion to verify the correct reception of the entire CPCS-PDU, shown in Figure 3.15. The
PAD (padding) field ensures th e CPCS-PDU trailer is 32 bit aligned, and the AL (align-
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70
ment) field pads the trailer to 32 bits. The Common Part Indicator!CPI) specifies how the
CPCS should interpret the remaining fields of the header and trailer. Presently a C PI of
zero indicates th at the BAsize field contains an estimate of the incoming C PC S-PD U ’s size
in bytes, and the Length field contains the exact size of the CPCS-PDU payload in bytes.
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The BAsize field may be used by the rezissembly machine to preallocate buffer
space. The Length field aids in the detection of reassembly errors such as loss or gain of
cells. Additional error detection is possible using the Btag and Etag fields. Both fields are
set to the same value when the CPCS-PDU is transm itted, the actual value used being
71
unim portant so long as it changes for succesive CPCS-PDUs.
Figure 3.1 6 shows a breakdown of the SAR-PDU, header, and trailer. The ST
field indicates what type of information is carried within the SAR-PDU. Four types exist,
they are: Beginning O f Message (BOM), Continuation Of M essage!COM ), End Of Mes
sage! EOM ), Single Segment Message!SSM). If a CPCS-PDU is less th an 45 bytes long
it WÜ1 fit within the payload of a single SAR-PDU and will be sent as an SSM. Longer
CPCS-PDUs are sent as a sequence of SAR-PDUs, beginning with a BOM, followed by zero
or more COMs, and ending with an EOM.
While segmenting and sending a given CPCS-PDU, the SN field is incremented by
one, modulo 16, for each SAR-PDU sent. The LI field indicates how m any bytes of the
payload are actuaRy valid. It is always 44 for BOMs and COMs, but may be less for EOMs
and SSMs corresponding to CPCS-PDUs th a t do not finish on a 44 byte boundary. The
CRC field provides bit error detection across the entire SAR-PDU.
A distinctive feature of AAL 3/4 is th a t it can multiplex different stream s of AAL-
SDUs across a single virtual connection. Multiplexing is achieved through the 10 bit MID
field. By associating each stream of .\AL-SDUs, and hence CPCS-PD U s, with a distinct
MID value, SAR-PDUs may be interleaved on the virtual connection and successfully ex
tracted a t the receiving end. W hen a user process is not multiplexing AAL-SDUs from
distinct sources the MID field is set to zero.
A t the receiving end of a virtual connection the SAR layer aims to recreate the
CPCS-PDU. Once this is obtained, the original AAL-SDU may be extracted and passed up
to the receiving user process. Each time a ceU arrives it is considered to either represent a
new CPCS-PDU (if it is BOM or SSM) or add to a CPCS-PDU already being assembled.
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Under normal operation the receiving AAL wiU, on a given virtual connection, see
a repeating sequence of BOM-COMs-EOM....BOM-COMs-EOM.... cells (interspersed with
SSMs if the traffic is a varied collection of short and long AAL-SDUs). T he first BOM
causes the AAL to note the MID and SN fields, and then look for following COMs which
contain the same MID and have correctly incrementing SN fields. The payload is extracted
from each SAR-PDU to form the CPCS-PDU. Finally when an EOM arrives, in sequence
and with a matching MID value, the CPCS function is passed the final payload with an
indication th at the CPCS-PDU should now be complete.
Final error checking involves m atching the Etag with the Btag, and ensuring the
Length field matches the received data. AAL3/4 relies on the CRC in each SAR-PDU
to ensure the CPCS-PDU s components are error free. Handling multiplexed AAL-SDU
traffic requires several instances of the SAR and CPCS entities to exist simultaneously.
Each instance of the SA R /C PC S is associated with a valid MID, and a particular AAL
service user.
COM and EOM SAR-PDUs th a t arrive with a MID value not corresponding to
a current CPCS-PDU are ignored. Those th a t arrive with an out of sequence SN field
are considered to indicate tin error in the transmission process, and the CPCS must abort
reassembly of the current CPCS-PDU. The arrival of a BOM with the MID of a CPCS-PDU
th a t is still being reassembled also causes th e current CPCS-PDU to be aborted.
3.7.4 AAL Type 5:
In AAL 5 unlike in AAL 3 /4 , th e responsibility of multiplexing is shifted to a higher layer,
error detection facilities are simplified, the BAsize facility to preallocate reassembly buffers is
discarded, and only one type of CPCS-PDU format is allowed []. All SAR level encapsulation
is removed, enabling 48 bytes of CPCS-PDU to be carried w ithin each cell. The SAR-PDU
type is now indicated by the User-to-User (UU) param eter in th e Payload Type Indication
(PTI)field of th e ATM cell header. Figure 3.17 shows a simplified AAL5 transmission of an
AAL-SDU [86].
AAL SDU
Com mon Part
convergence Sublayer
CPCS PDU PAYLOAD Padding CPCS_PDU TRAILER
Segmentation and Reassembly Sublayer

PAYLOAD
X SAR_PDU
AAL5
Cell HEADER ATM CELL PAYLOAD
To ATM cell transport layer
Figure 3.17: Transmission Using AAL 5
Only two SAR-PDU types are used under AAL5. The UU is set to one to m ark
the last (or only, in the case of a small CPCS-PDU) SAR-PDU of a CPCS-PDU. If the
CPCS-PDU spans more than one cell, cells with the UU set to zero carry the beginning
and continuation SAR-PDUs.
The CPCS-PDU is shown in figure 3.18. The Padding field, which may be between
0 and 47 bytes long, ensures th a t the Trailer always occupies the last 8 bytes of the last
SAR-PDU, and th e overall CPCS-PDU is aligned on a 48 byte boundary. Prim ary error
detection is provided by the 4 byte CRC field, which coversthe entire CPCS-PDU (including
the Length field, but excluding the CRC itself). The Length field specifies the payload size
(O
in bytes. The Length field also provides a backup protection against cell loss or gain, in the
unlikely event it is not picked up by th e CRC.
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Figure 3.18: CPCS-PD U Format for AAL 5
The Common P art Indicator! C PI) field is used to interpret subsequent fields for the
CPCS functions in the CPCS header and trailer. The only legal encoding at the moment
is all zeros, indicating th a t the CPCS contains user d ata [100]. O ther uses are for further
studv.
Because AAL5 does not support the simultaneous multiplexing of CPCS-PDUs on
a single virtual connection, all SAR-PDUs carry either th e current CPCS-PDU or the next
one. The first SAR-PDU to arrive after a SAR-PDU with UU set to I is assumed to be the
beginning of the next CPCS-PDU, irrespective of whether it is a SAR-PDU with UU set to
1. A CPCS-PDU shorter than 41 bytes may be represented by a sole SAR-PDU with UU
set to 1.
3.8 Traffic Management and Congestion Control:
A properly constructed ATM network m ust manage traffic fairly and provide effective allo
cation of the network capacity for different sorts of applications, such as voice, video, and
d ata [99][101][102]. The ATM network m ust also provide cost effective operations relative
to the quality of service (QOS) stipulated by the user, and it m ust be able to support the
different delay requirements of the applications, an im portant support function known as
Cell Delay Variation!CDV) management.
The ATM network m ust be able to adapt to unforseen traffic patterns (Traffic Con
trol) for example, unusual bursts of traffic from the various end user devices or applications.
Also, the network must be able to shed traffic in certain conditions to prevent or react to
congestion (Congestion Control).
To attain the goals o f traffic and congestion control several schemes have been pro
posed. At the connection admission level, every new connection is evaluated for its likeky
im pact on pre-existing conditions using a set of procedures called Connection Admission
Control (CAC) procedures. A connection request for a given call is accepted only when su-
ficient resources are available to carry th e new connection through the whole network at its
requested Quality of Service while maintaining the agreed QOS of already established con
nections in the network. During the connection establishment procedure, a traffic contract
specification is negotiated between the user and network to enable CAC to make reliable
connection acceptance or denial decisions.
The traffic contract contains inform ation such as th e peak cell rate (PC R ), sustain
able cell rate (SCR), burst tolerance, ceU error ratio, cell loss ratio, ceU misinsertion rate,
ceU delay variation (CDV) etc.
After a connection is granted, and the network has reserved resources for the con
nection, each user’s session is monitored or “policed” by th e network. This is done a t the
User-Network Interface (UNI) and is known as Usage P aram eter Control (U PC) and a t the
Network-Node Interface (NNI) and is called Network P aram eter Control (N PC). The main
purpose of UPC and NPC is to ensure th a t a particular connection does not exceed the
bounds agreed upon during the connection admission stage.
The ‘Leaky Bucket’ is the first basic policing function to be standardised by the
ITU -T. Various forms of this technique have been proposed [103].
The original form [104] proposed a model where packets of d ata would arrive at a
poUcing point and be passed through (‘leaked’) a t a capped maximum rate. If packet arrival
exceeded this rate the excess packets would be buffered (in a ‘bucket’), with the regular
leaking of packets acting to eventually em pty the bucket. If imbalance between packet
arrival and leak rates continued for too long, th e bucket would be fUled and subsequent
packets simply discarded. If the arrival rate was less than th e leak rate, and assuming an
em pty buffer, packets would be passed through straight away.
This scheme prevents packets from ever being passed faster than the leak rate, the
limitation of this technique is th a t while large buffers minimise the packet loss from large
bursts, they also introduce ex tra end to end delays.
Another scheme provides support for cell bursts in the form of a counter which is
actually a token pool, with a finite number of tokens[103]. When a cell arrives it will be
passed onwards only if a free token is available in the pool wherein the token is removed and
the cell transm itted. As cells continue to arrive the token pool may be depleted to the point
where the next cell to arrive cannot obtain a token. When no token is available the cell
may be buffered until a token is free or discarded depending on the actual im plem entation.
Acting alongside this process is a local clock regenerating tokens at a fixed rate, the pool
is replenished at a rate equivalent to the desired leak rate. When the pool is considered to
be full no more tokens are generated.
If the cell arrival rate is equal to the leak rate, the token pool will retain a constant
number of free tokens. However, a burst of cells will be passed through w ithout modification,
provided there are enough tokens in the pool at the time the burst occurs. The combination
of leak rate and token pool size must be chosen carefully.
Another scheme called the V irtual Leaky Bucket [104] utilises th e CLP bit in the
cell header to indicate cells in violation of the agreed traffic limit. It can be regarded as
a form of prioritising policing unit, because it attem pts to lower the cell loss priority of
violating cells rather than immediately buffering or discarding them. If a cell with CLP=0
arrives and there is no token available it is passed on with C LP=1. Violating cells th at
already have CLP=1 may be discarded or buffered according to some local algorithm .
The virtual leaky bucket has b etter burst tolerance than the token pool mechanism.
A burst will only suffer cell loss if it’s violation of the virtual leaky bucket limits coincides
79
with actual congestion further along the p ath , at which point the tagged cells will be
discarded. If th e network actually has the required bandwidth available at th e time of the
burst all cells will make it to their destination.
The fundamental shortcoming of all these variations of the leaky bucket is its in
ability to effectively deal with the wide range of possibly bursty traffic [105].
The ITU -T and ATM Forum have standardised an algorithm for policing traffic
at the UNI, it is called the Generic Cell R ate Alogorithm (GCRA) [106]. The GCRA is
implemented as a ‘continuos sta te ’ leaky bucket algorithm or a ‘virtual scheduling’(VS)
algorithm . The purpose of these two algorithm s is to identify the conforming cells and non
conforming cells. GCRA uses two real valued param eters 1 and L, denoted as Increment
and Limit and is described as GCRA(1,L).
At the arrival of a cell, the VS algorithm calculates the Theoretically predicted
Arrival Time (TAT) of the cell éissuming equally spaced cells (the distance between 2 con
secutive cells is denoted by 1) when the source is active. If the actual arrival time ta of a
cell is after T A T — L (L is the limit and it represents a certain tolerance value), then the
cell is conforming, otherwise the cell arrived too early and is considered as non conforming.
The continuos state leaky bucket algorithm can be viewed as a finite capacity (ca
pacity is L-t-1) bucket algorithm whose content leaks out a t a continuos rate of 1 per time
unit and whose content is increased by 1 for each conforming cell. If at a cell arrival the
content of the bucket is less th an L, then th e cell is conforming, otherwise the cell is non
conforming.
After the connection is granted and the cells are being transm itted through the
network, controlling functions are necessary to minimize the duration and im pact of the
80
transient overload conditions, these are called reactive controls [91][I04]. The usefulness of
reactive mechanisms are limited by the speed a t which they function, they must be faster
than the duration of the congestion condition th a t triggers them.
Cell discarding by policing units is a form of reactive control at the cell level. It is
a rapid response to a localised instance of excess traffic, reducing th e offered load to nodes
beyond the policing unit. A bi-level discard policy is built into every virtual connection
through the CLP bit in the cell header. Two possible uses have been proposed: th e cell source
may guide the policing units by setting C L P = 1 on cells th a t it considers less im portant,
or virtual policing units may act by changing C L P = 0 to CLP=1 on cells th a t exceed the
allowed traffic param eters. In either case, when a policing function anywhere in the network
considers it necessay to shed load it will begin by dropping CLP=1 cells.
The ATM Forum is in the process of defining a new type of service, called the
Available Bit Rate (ABR) [106]. ABR provides a mechanism for controlling traffic flow
through LAN based workstations and the routers th a t service these workstations. Since
LAN devices have no “contract” with a network, no easy method is available to relate the
AAL CBR and VBR idea to LAN environment.
Several proposals axe being considered for ABR one of them is the use of the Payload
Type field in the cell header to carry congestion notification to the end user[104]. When
informed of the congestion being experienced by traffic on that connection, the end user
becomes responsible for slowing down its traffic. The complication is th at the notification
is initially carried to the receiving end of the connection, and must be passed back to the
sender by some other means. This method is called Forward Explicit Congestion Notification
(FECN ).
81
An alternative is for the network nodes themselves to originate a congestion in
dication cell back to the source. This m ethod is called Backward Explicit Congestion
Notification (BECN) [104].
A nother form of reactive admission control involves post-acceptance modification of
a connection’s param eters in order to cope with a new connection's requirements. Certain
connection classes are considered to have higher priority than others, so low priority con
nections may have their allocated bandw idth reduced to make room for a subsequent higher
priority connection request [104].
The end user equipment implement policing functions of their own in the form of
‘traffic shaping’ by making the traffic shape more acceptable to the network. Traffic shaping
is basically altering the stream of cells (cell rate reduction, traffic discarding) em itted into
a virtual channel or virtual path connection [107].
C hapter 4
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems
The ability to digitize images has lead to the prospect of reducing the physical space require
ments, m aterial costs, and manual labor of traditional film handling tasks in hospitals. The
system which handles the acquisition, storage, and transmission of medical images is called
a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). T he various components which
constitute a PACS, and the issues of integration of PACS w ith other digital systems are
described in section 4.1. To facilitate easy transmission of medical images in a hospital (and
among hospitals) which is(are) usually multi-modality, and multi-vendor environments, sev
eral medical imaging standards were developed, the most popular standards are described
in section 4.2. W ith hospitals having to handle very large am ounts of data, efficient image
management is very im portant. The various aspects involved in medical image manage
ment, like database design, prefetching, and image compression are discussed in section 4.3.
The different classes of PACS and the design concepts involved in the development of a
PACS are described in sections 4.4 and 4.5 respectively. Reliability is a very im portant
issue in a medical environment, section 4.6 deals with this issue. Section 4.7 lists some of
the existing PACS and describes in brief, a few of the proprietary networks, some of these
systems have used.
82
83
4.1 General Concepts of Picture Archiving and Communica
tion Systems(PACS):
Computerized images make up a substantial fraction of routine diagnostic radiology exam
inations. Images are directly produced in digital form in computed tom ography, magnetic
resonance imaging (M Rl), ultrasound, nuclear medicine, com puted radiography, and digital
subtraction angiography [36][46][108][109]. The remaining radiologic images are in analog
form. Conventional analog radiographs can be scanned by film digitizers for entry into a
computer. W hether initially created by a digital device or converted by means of a film
digitizer, any radiologic image can be translated into digital form with the help of present
technology. Once in digital form, images can be enhanced, transferred, and stored by com
puters [110][111].
One o f the m ajor burdens of the radiology departm ent is the storage and retrieval
of the images. At present, in most of the hospitals all over the world, medical images
are recorded and stored on film [112]. Even images such as CT and MRI scans, which are
inherently digital, are typically transferred to film once the technologist has optimized them
for viewing. Radiologists then place the filmed images on illuminated light boxes, where
the films can be analyzed in batches and can be compared easily with previous and related
studies. OccassionaUy, as in the case of ultrasound studies, the images are transferred to
videotape for later review and interpretation [113].
Film storage requires a large am ount of space in a radiology departm ent. Typically,
departments have the capacity to store films only for those patients who have had studies
within the p ast 6 to 12 months. Older studies, usually retained for at least 7 years, are
stored in a basem ent or warehouse [37].
84
The ability to digitize images has lead to the prospect of reducing the physical
space requirements, m aterial cost, and manual labor of traditional fUm-handling tasks.
This is possible through on-line digital archiving, rapid retrieval of images via querying
of image databases, and high speed transmission of images over communication networks
[34]. A system with such capabilities was visualised in the early 1980s and th e term Picture
Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) was used to describe it. The issue of
a totally fUmless radiology departm ent was raised at the First International Conference
and Workshop on Picture Archiving And Communication Systems (PACS) for Medical
Applications and has come a long way since then. Now th e term s PACS and IMAC (Image
Management and Communication Systems) are used interchangeably [36].
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) now are considered to be
multimedia systems specifically designed to handle the high speed imaging and transmission
of medical d ata. The objectives of PACS are to digitize, display, and if necessary enhance,
images captured by com puted tomography, magnetic resonance, computed radiography and
other techniques, and bring order and accessibility via wideband networks to the files of
film in which they are stored [37][40][41][114].
4.1.1 Com ponents of a PACS:
A Picture Archiving and Communication System is typically composed of the following
components:
• D ata Acquisition Devices: Computed Radiography (C R ), Fluroscopy, Angiography,
Computed Tomography (C T ), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (M Rl), Nuclear Medicine
(NM), and Ultrasound.
85
• D ata Storage and Long-term Archive Subsystem: Receives acquired image d ata from
the acquisition devices, transm its requested data from th e storage device to the work
stations, and archives images for long-term storage.
• W orkstations: Generates the requests to d ata storage subsystem , receives images from
the d a ta storage subsystem, processes th e images if required, and displays images on
the m onitors for viewing.
• Networking: Provides the channel to distribute and communicate between image
databases and workstations, and between image databases and acquisition devices.
• System Operation: Involves the overall aspects of the operation such as d ata security,
system reliability and maintenance, system interfacing to other hospital computer
systems, e.g.. Hospital Information System (HIS), and Radiology Information System
(RIS).
A full fledged PACS often includes a teleradiology sub-system and supports long
term electronic storage of diagnostic images [39][41][49][115][116]. It is not just limited to
a specific departm ent but is used to manage the flow of diagnostic images throughout a
health care system. The benefits of a PACS are:
• Substantial reduction of film and film-related expenses [35].
• More efficient storage, retrieval and availability of imaging records and reports.
• More efficient use of imaging equipment, resulting in reduced capital equipment cost
[36].
• Faster turnaround for imaging diagnoses, resulting in fewer patient admissions and
shorter hospital stays.
86
• Consolidation of imaging records with other medical records, eliminating labor inten
sive, redundant manual systems of archiving and retrieving medical records.
Teleradiology refers to the use of com puters and electronic communication networks
to transm it diagnostic images acquired at one location to another location for review and
interpretation. It was first used for on-call review of imaging studies, but now is being used
more frequently to provide prim ary diagnoses [116]. A teleradiology system provides the
following benefits:
• Timely distribution of imaging d ata and patient reports to referring physicians and
consultants.
• Teaching files of interesting cases available to a wider audience.
• Universal access to large databases of text and images for research and education
[115].
• Improved integration of radiological services for m ulti-hospital /clinic health care
provider consortiums [40].
• Offers consulting-at-a-distance with sub-speciality radiologists [117].
• Provides radiologists in the community or in rural areas immediate access to large
academic centers for help in the interpretation of difficult and problematic cases.
4.1.2 Integration of H ospital Inform ation System s and R adiology Infor
m ation Systems:
The hospital information system (HIS) contains patient-specific d ata and adm inistrative
data [43][44]. It is used to manage the inform ation that health professionals need to per
87
form their jobs effectively and efficiently. The radiology information system (RIS) helps
in scheduling equipment and examination rooms for maximum usage, assisting film library
management, tracking the locations of films, and collecting and analyzing the d a ta necessary
for evaluation and planning decisions [118] [119].
The PACS requires several different kinds of text data from the HIS/RIS in order to
operate properly. The alphanumerical medical d a ta of a patient such as reports, laboratory
results, patient letters, m edication and so on, which are commonly stored in an HIS/RIS.
are needed for various tasks in the radiologic process, such as preparation of an exam, and
reporting of an exam.
The HIS/RIS sends current patient identification and order entry inform ation to the
PACS so th at it can register patients and process orders. AH patient demographic changes
are sent to the PACS to prevent patient m ism atch and avoid duplicate patient registration.
Examination progress infrom ation is sent to the PACS to trigger event processing, such as
printing labels when the patient arrives. Radiology reports are entered on the HIS/RIS
and are passed to the PACS so th at they can be displayed on the PACS in conjunction
with the images. Clinical scheduling inform ation is also needed for prefetching images from
the storage archive. Figure 4.1 [44] shows the event trigger mechanism for transferring
information from HIS to RIS, and from RIS to the PACS. The PACS must supply the HIS
with information about exam inations th at have been performed. Notification of completion
of an examination must be sent to the HIS in order to update the order status and identify
which images have been digitized. Research is going on to enable the entry of radiology
reports on the PACS and forward them to th e HIS/RIS[45|.
A ttem pts to integrate HIS/RIS which are predominantly text-based with P.A.CS
73
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89
which is image-based were m et with difficulties. The differences betwen the two systems
were identified to be:
• The systems mostly run on different platform s, where various communication profiles
are used [44] [45].
• The syntax and contents of the messages th a t can be sent by one system do not m atch
those of the messages th a t can be received by the other system.
• Often the definition of th e d a ta elements used in one system do not match those of
the elements in the o th er system.
• Different code may be used to store the same information in different systems.
• The inform ation exchange between th e connected systems may follow various d ata
transaction scenarios. For example, a PACS may request for patient and exam d ata
when it receives images from the acquisition device, whereas the HIS/RIS may send
the patient and exam d a ta to the PACS as soon as the appointm ent for the exam
is made. The acknowledgement of th e receipt of the messages may be performed in
various ways. In each scenario the inform ation exchange is performed by a different
set of messages.
• A HIS/RIS -PACS interface may not be a one-to-one interface, but an interface be
tween multiple text-based systems and multiple imaging systems.
After considerable research, it was decided th a t creating a generic HIS/RIS-PACS interface
so that any combination of HIS/RIS and PACS can be connected was the best solution
[45][118].
90
4.2 Medical Imaging Standards:
Any digital image on a computer is basically an array of dots displayed in rows an d columns.
Each dot makes up one element of the image called a picture element (pixel). T he com puter
keeps track of the precise location of each pixel by asigning each one an individual address
in its display memory area. .\t every address, the com puter allocates a certain num ber of
bits to hold the intensity value of the corresponding pixel. The num ber of bits stored per
pixel typically ranges from 8 to 16 in radiologic imaging devices and each bit can take a
value of either one or zero. Thus if 8 bits are available, the num ber of unique combinations
of ones and zeros is 2®. A total of 256 different shades of gray are possible in an 8-bit video
display system.
The digitized images can be transm itted from one com puter to the other over cable
or other media. But the real challenge lies in making the receiving computer decode the
incoming bursts of ones and zeros, and reconstruct the original image. There are as many
electronic systems to send images as there are types of computers and hence th e need for
standardization [120].
In an effort to develop a standard means by which users of digital medical imaging
equipment could interface display or o th er devices to these machines, the American College
of Radiology (ACR) and the National Electrical M anufacturers Association (NEM A) formed
a joint committee called the ACR-NEMA Digital Imaging and Communications Standards
Com m ittee in early 1983 [12l][122][123].
The purposes of the initial standards activity were to:
• Prom ote communication of digital imaging information, regardless of source format
or device manufacturer;
91
• Facilitate the development and expansion of picture archiving and communication
systems th a t can also interface with other systems of hospital inform ation; and
• Allow the creation of diagnostic information databases th at can be interrogated by a
wide variety of devices distributed geographically.
Version 1.0 of the ACR-NEMA standard was published in 1985. It was followed by version
2.0 in 1988 and the final version of version 3.0 also called DICOM 3.0 (Digital Imaging and
Communications in Medicine) was published in 1993.
4.2.1 Version 1.0:
This version specifies d ata form atting and provides a d a ta dictionary, a set of commands
and hardware interface. It supports only point-to-point message transmission. Connection
to a network requires additional hardware and software. It provides for a variety of functions
such as d a ta integrity checking, media access, flow control, fragmenting and reconstruction
[121].
The d ata dictionary is a comprehensive table of rules for the encoding of infor
mation associated with images; such information accompanies the image pixel data in a
file area called the header. They can contain such inform ation as: patient name, patient
identification number, study date, etc.
ACR-NEMA is patterned after the ISO /O Sl Reference Model. However, it is a
six-layered protocol since the Transport and the Network Layers were consolidated. The
Transport / Net work Layer, D ata Link Layer, and Physical Layer all follow very specific
protocols.
92
Application Layer:
An application can issue commands like SEND, GET, MOVE, FIND, DIALOG. ECHO, and
CANCEL. Each command has a request form and a response form. A protocol for message
exchanges is defined. The success or failure of a command request message is indicated by
the value of a status element within the command response message.
Presentation Layer:
The protocols for the presentation and application layers were not as rigorously defined.
The d a ta dictionary is a part of the presentation layer. It defines the structure for packaging
the various parts of d a ta which cross the interface.
Session Layer:
This layer will establish and control an end to end connection. Additionally, it will provide
its logical address as well as the network address.
Transport/Network Layer:
The T ransport/N etw ork layer specified by the ACR-NEMA standard is a simple X.25 style
network layer. Its function is to support and maintain virtual channels for message packets
and to provide fiow control for those channels.
T he ACR-NEMA standard does not specify an interconnection approach for multiple
devices. The users are free to use any interface of their choice[118]. The network interface
unit wUl provide a gateway to the network. Routing is provided by making the use of virtual
channels and end-to-end session protocol. It wiU fragment images into 2K 16 bit packets,
with a two-word packet header.
93
Data Link Layer:
This layer supports d ata flow control of two modes: datagram w ith no acknowledgements
and stop-and-wait with an acknowlegement per-frame. D ata from the tran sp o rt/ network
layer is framed with control and error checking headers.
Physical Layer:
The physical layer specifies a 50-pin hardware interface for point-to-point communication.
It specifies with 15 meters of cable length and can achieve a maximum of 8 m egabytes/s of
16 bit d ata words. A minimum set of commands will initiate transactions over the interface.
The standard gives complete details of the physical layer, it specifies signal timings, state
diagrams, differential circuits, bidirectional d a ta and parity lines, unidirectional control
lines and a maximum error rate of 17 x 10® [34].
4.2.2 Version 2.0:
This version like Version 1.0 supports only point-to-point message exchange. The d ata
dictionary rules are identical to those of Version 1.0 and it uses substantially the same
hardware specifications. A number of errors and inconsistencies existing in Version 1.0 were
removed and some new data elements were added. The layer specifications were the same
as for version 1.0. It was concluded th at both th e versions 1.0 and 2.0 were not capable of
provoding a workable foundation for the development of cost-effective and efficient digital
radiology interfaces, especially in a networked PACS [124].
94
4.2.3 Version 3.0
This version is known as digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM ) and was
published in 1992 [125][126]. The draft document of the standard is composed of nine p arts.
DICOM is a standard for th e communication of medical images and associated information.
It differs from ACR-NEMA Versions 1.0 and 2.0 in several m ajor respects. The m ost
im portant is th a t the basic design of the standard was changed. The earlier versions relied
on an implicit model of th e information th a t is used in radiology departm ents. The d a ta
elements were grouped based on the experience of the designers, and though the mapping
was imperfect, the message structure allowed th e necessary information to be transm itted.
In contrast, DICOM relies on explicit and detailed models of how the various elements
(patients, images, reports etc) involved in radiology operations are described and how they
are related. These models are called entity-relationship (E-R) models and facilitate the
development of data-structures used in DICOM.
The DICOM standard conforms fully to the ISO reference model for network com
munications. Radiologic im aging software applications interact with the top layer of th e
ISO protocol stack, the Application Layer. P art 7 of DICOM is the docum ent th at defines
the requirements of an application software to interact with DICOM communications. In
DICOM, a typical message consists of a command stream and a d ata stream . This message
needs to be passed on to lower layers of th e communication model for communication to
take place.
The DICOM standard represents a m ajor conceptual departure from the limited
point-to-point communicatons goal of versions 1.0 and 2.0. While maintaining com apat-
ibility with the .50-pin physical connector (described in part 9 of the DICOM docum ent)
95
and the signaling protocol of th e original standard, the DICOM standard specifies means
of alternative connections th a t simplify multipont networking. P art 8 of the DICOM docu
ment defines th e network support for exchanging the DICOM messages. Currently. T C P /IP
and the ISO -OSI protocols are supported, but the nature of the upper layer service de
fined is such th a t it should be possible to expand to o ther protocols w ith relative ease
[127][128][129][130]. Once out o f the DICOM upper layer, the remainder of the commu
nications protocol follows the existing standards. DICOM does not modify or customize
anything in these standards. The DICOM model is shown in figure 4.2
Figure 4.2: The Dicom Model
Also the earlier versions of the ACR-NEM.\ standard specified only a minimum
level of conformance leading to a great deal of ambiguity. The DICOM standard defines
96
principles th a t implementations claiming conformance m ust follow . Conformance require
ments specify the general requirements which must be addressed by all implementations
claiming conformance. Conformance claims must be expressed in terms of specifically de
fined service classes, the functional units of which are precisely described with predefined
terms[131][132][133].
4.2.4 Am erican Society of Testing and M aterials (ASTM ) M edical Stan
dards:
The American Society for Testing and M aterials (ASTM ) is composed of more than 132
technical standards writing committees. Together, they have published more than 9.100
standard specifications, tests, practices, guides, and definitions for m aterials, products,
systems, and services. .ASTM’s committee E-31 was sta rte d in 1970 to w rite standards for
com puter autom ation of laboratory instrum ents [108]. In 1975, a subcom m ittee to deal
with clinical laboratory systems was formed, to deal with medical com puter systems.
The prim ary goal of the sub-committee on d ata exchange for clinical results E-31.11
is to define specifications for transferring clinical laboratory d ata messages between inde
pendent com puter systems. In relationship to networking protocols this ASTM standard
deals with the application layer of the ISO /O SI model. T he lower layers can be any set
of reliable protocols. The messages are composed of a restricted ASCII character set. The
message can consist of an unlimited num ber of lines but each line cannot be longer than
220 characters.
4.2.5 Medical Information Bus Standard IEEE P1073
In 1984, the P1073 committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) started developing the Medical In
formation Bus (MIB) standard [108]. The primary goal of this committee was to “provide
an international standard for open systems communication in healthcare applications, pri
marily between bedside medical devices and clinical inform ation systems, optimized for the
acute care setting” .
In relationship to networking protocols the MIB stan d ard specifies a specialized
local area network through a family of three network communication standards. These
standards were modeled after the ISO/OSI reference model. The presentation layer is a
subset of ISO 8822/23 standard, the session layer is a subset of ISO 8326 standard. The
Transport layer provides simple transport services, but does not strictly comply with it as
many param eters are defaulted. The network layer is a functionality inactive layer, while
the d a ta link layer offers a connection oriented, point-to-point d a ta transfer. T he physical
layer uses the Electronuic Industries Association (EIA) 485 specification with non return
to zero inverted (NRZI) encoding at 375 Kbps.
4.2.6 Health Level 7 Standard
HL7 is a standard for electronic d ata exchange in healthcare environments. HL7’s pur
pose is to facilitate communication in healthcare settings. T he prim ary goal is to provide
standards for the exchange of d ata among healthcare com puter applications th a t eliminate
or substantially reduce the custom interface programming and program maintenance that
may otherwise be required. HL7 is accredited by the American National Standards Institute
98
(ANSI) to write these standards [133].
The Standard currently addresses the interfaces among various systems th at send or
receive patient adm issions/registration, discharge or transfer data, queries, orders, results,
clinical observations, billing, and m aster file update inform ation. T he next version of the
standard (2.3) will expand on the current coverage of these areas and will include new cov
erage for patient care, medical records, and autom ated instrum ents. Work is also underway
to produce HL7 standards for recording immunizations and drug reactions.
The term “Level 7” refers to th e highest level of the Open System Interconnection
(OSI) model of the International S tandards Organization (ISO). In the OSI conceptual
model, the communications functions are separated into seven levels. Those developing the
HL7 Standards are primarily focused on th e issues th a t occur within the seventh, or appli
cation, level. These are the definitions of the application d a ta to be exchanged, the timing
of the exchanges, and the communication of certain application specific errors between the
applications.
4.2.7 Medical D ata Interchange Standard IEEE P1157:
The P1157 Working group of the IEEE EMBS started developing th e Medical D ata Inter
change (MEDIX) standard with a prim ary goal of specifying and establishing a robust and
flexible communication standard for th e exchange of d a ta betwen heterogeneous healthcare
inform ation systems. The MEDIX stan d ard is based upon the ISO /O SI reference model
[134]. Currently, it is based on the Government OSI profile (GOSIP).
A list of the standards and the type of information they deal with is given in table
3.
99
Table 2. Standards for Transferring Messages and Data
Subject m atter and kind Acronym/ Responsible organization/

of communication number name of stan d ard
Clinical alpha-numeric information within HL 7 Health Level 7

an institution (Linkages assumed to be
“tight, synchronous” )
Clinical alpha-numeric information between ASTM American Society for Testing and
institutions (Linkages assumed to be E1238 Materials
“loose, interm ittent, non-synchronous” ) Clinical D ata Interchange Standard
Medical images in all contexts, between all ACR-NEMA American College of Radiology-
picture archiving systems DICOM 3.0 National Electrical M anufactures'
Association
Digital imaging and communications
in medicine
Information from laboratory instrum ents to ASTM American Society for Testing and
com puter systems 1394 M aterials
Information between critical care IEEE Institute o f Electrical and
devices/instrum ents and computers P1073 Electronics Engineers
Medical inform ation bus ( MIB ) standar
Electrocardiographic signals between EC G CEN European Technical Com m ittee for

devices and computers T C P T 251 Normalization
Electroneurographic signals (EEG, EMG) ASTM American Society for Testing and
between computers 1467 Materials
Standard specification for transferring
digital neurophysiological d a ta between
com puter systems
Table 4.1: Standards for Transfering Messages and D ata.
100
Continuation of table 3
Subject m a tter and kind Acronym/ Responsible organization/

of communication number name of standard
Clinical medical logic, alerts, decision support ASTM American Society for Testing and
prompts, guidelines E1460 Materials
Standard specification for defining
and sharing m odular health
knowledge databases (Arden syntax)
Messages from application to bibliographic .ANSI American National Standards

retrieval systems Z39.50 Institute
Billing and remittance transactions between ASC Accredited Standards Committee

care site and payer X12 X12 Subcomm ittee standards
Billing and eligibility inform ation between NCPDP National Council for Prescription
pharmacies and payers Drug Program s
N CPDP standards
4.3 Medical Image Management:
A hospital is a very large environment, where objects (mostly images) have to travel around
fast. Some times images even have to travel outside the hospital for inter-hospital commu
nication or communication with a referring physician outside the hospital. Although high
speed networks are available now, extra measures have to be taken to guarantee the best per
formance [135][136]. M anagement of voluminous medical images and related text/graphical
d ata is still a key issue and involves such concepts as database design, image routing, im
age stacking, image aging, HIS-RIS/PACS interfacing, autom atic file transfer and image
prefetching.
101
4.3.1 Database Storage Issues:
The amount of storage required varies widely depending on w hat type of imaging modalities
are available. The number of bytes required per study depends on the number of pixels per
image array, the number of bits per pixel and the number of images per study. The image
parameters of various imaging modalities are shown in table 4.
Modality Resolution Typical study size

(bits/im age)
Digitized x-ray 4096X4096X12 6-34 Mbyte
film
CR 2048X2048X10-12 8 M byte/image;
2-3 im ages/study
CT 256X256X8 to 20-100 images = 10-100
512X512X10 Mbyte
MRI 256X256X16 2-50 Mbyte
Nuclear medicine 64X64X8 to 0.2-2 Mbyte
256X256X8
Ultrasound 512X512X6 36 still frames on
4 films=7 Mbyte
Digital 1024X1024X8 to 80 images (10 second
angiography 2048X2048X12 anim ation )=80M byte
Table 4.2: Image Param eters
At present, storage is done mostly on two types of media: magnetic for short-term
storage and optical for long-term storage [137][138]. For short-term storage magnetic disks
are used because they offer speed, limited portability and a great deal of dependability that
is not available in other storage media. The more commonly used magnetic disks are the
large parallel disks and also th e Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAIDs) technology
used in MDIS systems. For long term storage, optical disks which are based on the WORM
or Write Once Read Many times technology offer lower cost per byte storage than magnetic
disks at very reasonable transfer rates. Also hundreds of optical disks can be stored in
jukeboxes providing terabytes of storage.
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4.3.2 Database Design:
Two different storage environments are possible: a central database and a distributed
database [138][139]. In the central database design there is a single database which contains
all th e d a ta generated by the various modalities. In this architecture, image access requests
generated from remote locations are routed to and processed at the central site, where
communiation, disk-accessing and processing bottleneck often occur. This lim itation of a
centralized architecture results in slow system response tim e, giving rise to the considera
tion of an alternative distributed database design. D istributed databases are characterized
by physical separation/replication as well as logical integration of database fragments. The
principle of a distributed database design is to distribute the logical and physical compo
nents of a single database over a communication network while keeping the distribution
hidden from the users. A distributed database design has been shown to b etter meet the
various performance requirements of a PACS than a central database design in the clinical
environment [I40][141]. In a large scale PACS, the distributed architecture which allows
parallel retrieval of images for a transaction. This will remove the communication bottle
necks encountered due to the differences in speed between the data storage systems and
the d a ta communication systems (high speed). A distributed design will allow multime
dia d a ta to be stored in different physical media to enable parallel d ata retrievals, thereby
reducing retrieval response time [141]. In addition, a distributed design is also more de
pendable in th at it can continue information service even if individual sites or parts of the
communication links fail.
1 03
4.3.3 A utom atic File Transfer and Image Prefetching:
As the PACS network grows and the number of archive and display nodes increases, special
software is needed to efficiently manage autom atic transfer of image files between different
servers. Images must be sent from the acquisition/archive node to the display servers
where they are needed. Also, images from previous examinations m ust be sent to the
same servers for comparison. In the reporting activity, radiologists usually compare newly
acquired images with images from previous examination of the sam e patient according to
certain rules and needs. In a film-based system, the old images present in a film jacket are
physically available to the reader. In a PACS, in order to minimize the traffic workload
at peak hours, older images required for comparison should be sent in advance, possibly
during night (overnight prefetch) time when the traffic is low. This technique is called
“prefetching” [142] of comparative images and is possible only if a proper HIS-RIS/PACS
interface is available. The simplest way to implement a prefetching system is to always
send the full set of older images of a given patient to the display server considered. Such
a scheme is relatively easy to implement but is not efficient. A m ore selective extraction
of relevant images based on a set of rules designed by th e clinical users depending on their
different needs should be designed. Sophisticated prefetch algorithms have been designed
and are being employed in most of the existing PAC Systems [143].
4.3.4 Image Compression Issues:
The large am ount of information th at m ust be stored for medicaJ imaging puroses makes
it necessary to employ compress the array representing the original image into an inter
mediate set of d ata having fewer bits th an the original array. This reduces the amount of
104
storage required. Image compression algorithms are divided into lossy and lossless algo
rithms [144][145]. Lossy algorithm s are capable of upto 20:1 or 30:1 ratios. M ost lossless
algorithms can only compress images upto 3:1 ratios. Most prim ary diagnosis is done using
images reconstructed with lossless algorithms [146]. Lossy algorithms are only used for
consultative or browsing (for quick identification of images for prefetch) purposes.
The images that are presented to the radiologists must preserve the inform ation in
the original film images in order for the soft-copy images to be accepted by th e medical
community. Radiological images were found to differ from other images in th e following
ways:
• The images are very low contrast images locally. Even the transition over th e edge of
a bone does not change the image intensity by a large am ount. The dynam ic range
over the whole image m ay be quite large.
• Much of the information is in the local variation of the image intensity. The over
all picture provides a context within which the inform ation is embedded, but the
pathology is visible as local variations.
• The images are subject to large changes in the individual pixel intensity as the radi
ologist views the image. The radiologist may change the contrast and th e center of
the contrast range in his efforts to see the details of the image. In the extrem e the
radiologist may invert th e image changing white to black.
• The images are very large, typicaJly more than Ik x 1.2A: pixels and up to 2k x 2.ôk
pixels.
• The image dynamic range typically requires 12 bits.
105
• The image will be viwed at a number of magnifications from 4:1 minimized to 8:1
zoomed.
All of the images in medicine can be usefully compressed to reduce the storage and
communication capacity required. The interchange of compressed images requires th a t the
receiver be able to accept an image in the compressed form at and restore th e image to
an approximation of the original image in a diagnostically useful form. Interoperability
requires that the compressed images be in a standard format th a t the receiving system can
interpret to restore the image.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) compression [146] is the generally ac
cepted compression for a wide variety of images in publishing, illustrations, and advertis
ing. Since it has such broad acceptance, it has been included in the DICOM stan d ard as
an instance of a standard compression technique. For medical imaging the basic JPEG
compression has drawbacks.
JPEG has a total of 29 variations ranging from lossless compression to lossy com
pression. Of these, the best known compression techniques are differential pulse code mod
ulation (DPCM ) processing with a Huffman coder for lossless compression and a block
discrete cosine transform (DOT) with a Huffman coder for th e lossy compression.
For lossless compression, JP E G can provide a compression ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. The
drawbacks of the simple JPEG lossless compression are the Huffman coding table and the
lack of a low entropy extension. While a fixed Huffman coding table may be used for many
images, in general the Huffman coding table is constructed for a single monochrome image
by examining each pixel of the entire image and building the table from the frequency of
occurence of pixel values. When there is only one type of image, a single Huffman coding
106
table can be built to do well on m ost of the images of th a t type. W hen there are several
types of images, a separate Huffman coder is required for each type or each image m ust be
examined separately to build the Huffman coder.
For lossy compression, the JP E G standard uses an 8 x 8 DCT which introduces
blocking artifacts th a t are unacceptable in most types of medical images. When the image
is viewed on a w orkstation, the image may be magnified for looking at the details, and the
blocking of the 8 x 8 DCT will be visible over the whole of the image, this is unacceptable.
For teleconferencing purposes it is necessary to compress full motion video . The
MPEG-1 and M PEG-2 [147] standards define methods for compressing high quality audio
and video. The M PEG algorithm is widely used for video compression, it relies on two basic
techniques; block-based motion com pensation for the reduction of tem poral redundancy;
and DCT based compression for th e reduction of spatial redundancy. The image quality of
the MPEG-1 algorithm at rates of ab o u t 1.2 Mbps is limited to 360 samples per video line
and the video signal a t the input o f the source coder is 30 frames per second, progressive.
MPEG-2 supports compression of wide ranging quality video and audio beyond th a t of High
Definition Television (HDTV) into a bitstream up to 100 Mbps.
4.4 Classification of PACS:
4.4.1 M odality Centered PACS:
This is a small system with only a few (2-10) workstations. It is focused on one specific
modality, typically MRI, CT. NM, o r US [148][149].
107
4.4.2 D epartm ental PACS:
This is used for image capture, diagnosis and reporting within a single departm ent, such as
radiology or Nuclear Medicine. Typically from 2 to 10 workstations are employed. Several
departm ental PACS are now commercially available, these can be integrated into an existing
P.ACS.
4.4.3 Full Hospital PACS:
This can be considered zis a Local PACS. It includes a network connecting multiple imaging
modalities to display workstations throughout th e hospital serving all departm ents which
work with patient images and reports. The present generation Local PACS also includes a
telemedicine system, which is a long distance network connecting healthcare facilities an d /o r
practitioners, which includes teleradiology, telepathology, video-conferencing/consulting,
and other information transfers electronically in real-time.
A Local PACS requires a relatively larger capital investment, but provides economies
of scale and capabilities that go far beyond a simple enlargement of a modality centered
PACS or a departm ental PACS. W ith the smaller PACS versions, the hospital still has to
rely on film. It must run both types of systems, and has to deal with the complexities of
both approaches, therefore, not realizing the fuU benefits of PACS [150].
4.4.4 Global PACS:
A Global PACS consists of several Local PACS networks interconnected by a national
or international backbone network, called the Internet [151]. Digital images and patient
information are transferred between Global PACS sites using this backbone network. A
108
Global PACS system can interconnect many Local PACS across country, as shown in figure
4.3 [152].
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Each Local PACS has viewing workstations and database archive systems contain
ing radiology modality image sets. The system software for the Global PACS is distributed
among Imaging Equipment, Viewing W orkstations, D atabase Archive System, and the net-
109
work inteface nodes. A Global PACS environm ent provides new and benificial operations
between radologists and physicians, when they are located in different geographical loca
tions.
4.5 PACS Design Concepts:
Many technical problems make a total PACS solution im practical in many situations. These
problems cover every aspect of PACS and include cost of equipment; inadequate or non
existent equipment interfaces; limited network bandw idth for image transfer; the need for
large image archives with usable image m anagem ent; and displays with acceptable resolu
tion, speed, contrast range, and user interfaces.
Small clinically useful partial PACS ( “miniPACS” ) have been developed[lI9] and
these can provide experience for future development of more complete PACS. A partial
PACS may have a component missing, but serves a limited clinical or functional role. A
partial PACS is typically implemented (a) to solve a specific storage problem; (b) to allow
archiving, communication and display of organ-specific systems, as in neuroradiology, which
may include multiple modalities; (c) to provide PACS for a single modality system such as
nuclear medicine image transmission, display, and processing. B ut without substantial work
on the part of future users of the system, a p artial PACS can be expensive and may not
meet the basic requirements th a t would make th e system clinically useful.
Planning for PACS and creating a supporting infrastructure are im portant and
complex procedures [153][154]. Because of the complexity of a full scale PACS, simulating
various hypothetical PACS scenarios befor deciding on an overall architecture and imple
menting it is valuable. Modeling and simulation are used for capacity planning, for the
110
analysis of various tradeoffs and ~what if” scenarios, and in the evaluation of alternative
architectures [153][155]. One of the m ajor steps in this process is the definition of system re
quirem ents and the establishment of measurable performance metrics associated with these
requirements. PACS system requirements can be defined as follows [154,155]:
• Usability: Radiologists usually evaluate PACS system in binary terms: either the
system is usable o r is not usable. This is called subjective usability and can vary
drastically among individual radiologists. Objective usability is a measure from the
developers perspective and is used for system analysis and design and is associated
with a measurable system metric which can be derived from other system metrics.
• Reliability: The reliability of a distributed system such as PACS depends on such
factors as sofware quality, interdependency among components in the system, system
monitoring facility, and fault resiliency mechanism. These metrics can be measured
qualitatively.
• Fault resiliency: System fault resiliency can be implemented and measured in terms
of the degree of component redundancy, autom ated failover and system degradation
mechanisms, and autom atic system reconfiguration upon failures.
• Efficiency: The performance and efficiency of a PACS system can be measured with
these metrics: the rate to move d a ta from optical storage media to magnetic media,
the rate to move d a ta from disk to memory, d ata network throughput between nodes,
the speed for rem ote access of other medical d ata, the efficiency to search and sort
various medical textual data, the speed of the image processing functions performed,
and the speed to present the integrated information to radiologist.
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• Image d a ta locality and availability: The degree of image d ata locality is a measure
th a t indicates th e availability of image d ata on the local display workstations be
fore a radiological diagnostic session. Intelligent image prefetching and optimal d a ta
replication can be implemented to provide the image d ata locality and functionality.
General image d a ta availabilty concerns the integrity and retrievability of the image
d ata stored in long-term storage media susch as optical and tap e media. It can be
measured as the success rate of retrieving a statistically significant sample of image
d ata stored.
• A utom ation: Any system operation depends on human interaction is bound to errors.
The degree o f autom ation can be measured in term s of the percentage of the system
th a t operates autom atically w ithout any human intervention.
• Operation optim ization: Operation optim ization of a PACS can be implemented by
using such techniques as dynamic network load balancing, distributed system message
delivery system for system-wide status collection and monitoring.
• Connectivity: Connectivity of a PACS indicates to w hat degree of remote services
th a t the PACS provides. A PACS with LAN. MAN, and WAN capability hzis a higher
degree of connectivity than th a t of a PACS which can only serve one or a few limited
radiological services in a LAN environment. Likewise, higher degree of connectivity is
provided if th e PACS has the ability to access rem ote medical and other information
sources.
• Scalability: High scalability of a PACS ensures th a t the addition of new imaging
devices a n d /o r new image display workstations to the PACS requires no or minimal
112
system level adjustm ent.
• Security: Implementing authorization and authentication mechanisms to control and
monitor user access to and user utilization of the PACS system is an im portant factor
of PACS system security.
• Conformance to industry standards: Conformance profiles of the PACS components
should be used to evaluate the conformance to industry standards.
• Manageability: System m anagem ent includes the management of software, hardware
configuration, and other resources. The ease of management can be mezisured by the
manpower required to m aintain and manage a PACS
After th e performance metrics have been defined and the measurements made, the
simulation model can be created and executed using one of the many commercially available
simulation tools. The results should then be analysed and the model verified before trans
forming the PACS model into practical implementation [156][157][158][159]. The design of
the PACS architecture should be based on the ISO/OSI model to facilitate the interoper
ability with other systems. Table 5 gives the ISO/OSI communication protocol layers and
the standards by which these layers can be implemented.
The feaisibility of operation of DICOM over ATM has been dem onstrated. A. telera
diology model using DICOM and T C P /IP over ATM is shown in figure 4.4.
4.6 Reliability Issues in PACS:
Reliability is an increasing concern when PACS modules are moved from the controlled
research environment to a busy clinical setting where radiologists and referring physicians
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OSI layer (ISO Standards) usually are implemented
7 Application American Society for Testing and Materials ASTM 1238

Health level 7 (HL 7)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE P1157
Medical D ata Interchange S tandard (MEDIX)
6 Presentation (encoding) Abstract Syntax N otation.I (ISO A SN .l)

Accredited Standards C om m ittee X-12
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Health Level 7 (HL 7)
Standard Generalized M arkup Language (SGML)
5 Session Berkeley Sockets
4 Transport NetBIOS, Sockets, SPX

Transmission Control Protocol-Intem et Protocol (TCP-IP)
3 Network Ethernet, Internet Protocol (IP ), NetBEUI, X.25
2 D ata link Ethernet, HDLC, LAPB, LA PD, LLC
1 Physical Ethernet, IEEE RS-232, IEEE 802.x, Token Ring,ATM
Table 4.3: OSI Communication Protocol Layers.
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will depend heavily on its operation [160][16l][162]. Any system downtime may seriously
affect patient care. From a user’s point of view, reliability can be measured in terms of
the speed at which the task is performed and the accuracy to which a task is carried out.
A reliable system will consistently get images, reports, and necessary support information
to the appropriate workstation within a specified period of time. This tim e constraint is
critical since the longer it takes a radiologist to view and interpret a study the less chance
the results of the study can be used for patient management decisions. A reliable system
also accurately performs requested tasks [163][164].
It is difficult to attain a completely fault-tolerant PACS. Most PACS, in order to
be cost-effective emlpoy major pre-existing subsystems (workstations, Digital Signal Pro
cessors, microprocessors, displays, mini-PACS, etc.) th at have no fault tolerance, or have
it to a very limited extent only. The m ajor points of failure in any PACS are:
• workstations,
• network links,
• image database systems,
• acquisition devices, and
• d ata interfaces.
Very high dependability can be attained by employing both fault-tolerance and fault-
avoidance (testing, design verification, quality control, etc.) techniques. A fault-tolerant
system can detect faults when they occur and restore correct com putation by involving
redundant hardware or software to re-establish error free operation.
Reproduced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
116
Hardware redundancy can be introduced easily for all of the points of failure iden
tified above. Most of the large scale PACS employ a m ulti-tier network architecture
[50][57](for example ethem et, FDDI. and ATM). Failure of a particular network autom ati
cally triggers an attem pt to send data over a different network circuit. The reconfiguration
involves simply passing the communication routine a different network address.
The software is susceptible to failure too. To increase software reliability, techniques
of recovery blocks and design diversity can be applied to protect critically im portant software
elements. If software failures are detected, it is necessary to have backups th at can be
expected to work. This can be done by supplying less complex or well de-bugged earlier
versions of program s th at can be substituted if a program fails [160].
Providing mechanisms to detect and isolate errors and faults when they occur is
essential in th e design of a highly dependable system [71,72]. Once the errors have been
detected, it is necessary to recover from them. Hence providing fault and error recovery
mechanisms th a t can m onitor th e PACS system for proper operation, and upon detection of
faults can properly take actions to prevent d ata loss, preserve d a ta correctness and reassign
functions to redundant hardw are and software to allow th e system to continue correct
operation is necessary.
To ensure d ata integrity and security, techniques like key-based cryptography [165]
and digital tim e stamping should be employed. Key-bzised cryptography associates the
content of an image with the originator using one or two distinct keys and prevents alteration
of the docum ent by anyone other than the originator. A digital time stam ping algorithm
generates a characteristic “finger print” for the original document using a m athem atical
hash function, and checks th a t it has not been modified.
117
4.7 Some existing PACS:
Several medical communication networks have been developed at several university medi
cal centers. These include University of California at Los Angeles, Bowman Gray School
of Medicine at Wake Forest University, University of California San Francisco School of
Medicine, Osaka University School of Medicine in Japan, University of Arizona, University
of Miami School of Medicine, Brussels Free University Hospital in Belgium, Phillips Univer
sity Hospital in Germany, Mallinckrodt In stitu te of Radiology at W ashington University,
University of W ashington a t Seattle, University of Alberta in Canada, Aachen University
of Technology in Germany, Columbia University and several others. Also the U.S. m ilitary
through the Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support(M DIS) system is installing teleradiology
at multiple medical treatm ent facilities through out the US and abroad.
Some of th e medical centers mentioned above have used proprietary networks like
U ltraN et, ImNet and TeraNet. UltraNet was used in several medical centers including
University of California, Los Angeles. It is a fiber optic-based LAN with a high throughput
rate. It consists of two m ajor components: a hub with a 1 Gbps signaling rate, and a
host adapter w ith a signaling rate of upto 250 Mbps. The UltraNet network is a mesh
star topology. Even though it can provide high transmission rates, because of U ltraN et’s
medium access control!M AC) protocol being proprietary, it is not widely used [39].
Im N et/2 (the latest version of ImNet) is a network specialized for the image tran s
port in a PACS. It has been developed by the PACS research lab at the Aachen University
of Technology, th e main principle here is th e separation of the heterogenous d ata flow into
pure image d ata flows and management d a ta flows. Im N et/2 is a fiber-optic-based network
and has a data transport mechanism which perm its asynchronous d ata transfer between two
US
nodes of image equipment without packeting the image d ata set into small frames. D ata
rates of upto 140 Mbps were achieved [166]. Again the technology is not standardized and
is limited to a few hospitals.
TeraNet is an integrated network designed to provide user access rates as high as
1 Gbps. It is based on Wavelength Division Multiple Access(WDMA) and Sub-carrier
Frequency Division M ultiple Access(SFDMA). Each user is connected to a network access
node, which has a small number of transm itters and receivers, each operating on a preas
signed W DM A/SFDM A channel. TeraNet was developed at Center for Telecommunication
Research, Columbia University [53] and some of concepts like negotiating th e service re
quirements before connection setup, supporting multiple classes of traffic are similar to
ATM.
4.7.1 Telemedicine Protocols:
A number of standards have been developed which can be used when design a telemedicine
system. Each of these standards apply to one or more layers of the typical protocol stack as
shown in figure 4.5. The H.320 family of international teleconferencing standards provides
for simultaneous audio (G.700), video (H.261) and d ata transfer (T.120) using communica
tion bit rates from 56 kbps to 1.92 Mbps. Compatibility with H.320 insures interoperability
with the widest range of third-party teleconferencing systems. The M PEG-1 and MPEG-2
standards define methods for compressing high quality audio and video. The Internet family
of protocols forms the common language for the global packet-switched network known as
the Internet. IP is inherently connectionless-based. TC P supports error-correction, packet
ordering and acknowledgements. User D atagram Protocol (UDP) provides minimal over
head but w ithout any error-correction. Point-to-Point Protocol (P P P ) supports the layering
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of IP and other packet-switched protocols on connection-oriented bitstream s.
C hapter 5
Conclusions
This chapter presents the conclusions of this survey. Section 5.1 lists the observations
made, ajid describes the reasons for ATM to be used in developing a PACS. M igration to
ATM is complicated by the limitations of existing PACS, section 5.2 describes the differences
between the existing LAN technologies and ATM, and discusses the two standard techniques
for providing LAN services over ATM. Section 5.3 describes the various issues to be resolved
for rapid deployment of ATM into th e medical environment.
5.1 Observations and Recommendations:
Upon deep perusal of the available literature, it has been observed th at most of the existing
medical communication systems have been designed to provide the basic communication
needs for PACS in th e least expensive way. Such an approach, though successful in meeting
the immediate requirements, will be inadequate in satisfying the growing communication
needs of increasingly image intensive medical applications. For example 3D therapy in
cancer treatm ent generates an image d a ta set containing 50 to 100 slices of 512 x 512 images,
each of which has 12 bits of gray scale. Thus on an average each data set is approxim ately
121
122
236 Mbits. Also for interactive 3D volumetric rendering calculations, the physicians and
physicists need to receive 512 x 512 x 24 (64 M bit) images at the frequency of at least 50
times per second. The bandwidth required is at least 300 Mbps, which is higher than even
OC-3 rates.
In the past, digital video conferencing systems were designed to work over low band
width links. During the develpoment of the North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH),
it has been shown th a t for providing realistic tele-consulting and education environments,
multiple camerzis were required to cover even a single office. Similarly, mono-phonic audio
was found to be inadequate to give a feel of the location of the audio source, and hence
multiple microphone locations had to be considered[NCIH] [59][166][167]. Also for effective
remote consultation and diagnosis, graphical annotations (like circles or boxes drawn by
the radiologists/ physician to mark areas of interest) of medical images have to be tran s
m itted in real time[168][l69][170]. Every node in the network should be able to support
full-duplex traffic at rates higher than 100 Mbps. To support hundreds or even thousands
of such nodes the aggregate network capacity must be in th e order of tens of giga bytes. To
support this m agnitude of growth potential over a long term period the network must be
scalable, m odular and flexible.
Neuroradiology is a subspeciality in the field of radiology. Only about 1,600 senior
members of the American Society of Neuroradiology are experts in interpreting CT and MR
images. The scarcity of these experts hinders delivery of health care, m ost of them now use
teleradiology to interpret CT and MR images on an emergency basis. But their success has
been limited by the lack of high performance networks and associated PACS technologies
[61].
123
With the increasing use, as well as the lowering cost, of networking and imaging
technologies, a trend is emerging to integrate local PACS and textual databases across many
hospital sections and departm ents for hospital wide service needs. Local area networks allow
imaging and other equipment to be intraconnected within hospitéils and clinics.
But cost control measures, such as managed health care and patient demands for
convenient access to out-patient care is leading to an increasing shift away from single
institution in-patient care towards out-patient care provided by consortia of health-care
providers. Wide area networks allow hospitals, out-patient clinics, health maintenance
organizations(HM Os), and physician offices located throughout urban, sub-urban, and rural
ares to be interconnected. The lack of appropriate networking technology to integrate
individual systems, and their services seamlessly is a m ajor stumbling block.
A complete PACS requires LAN access with high bandwidth and low delay over
long distances. To satisfy these needs, several high-speed networking techniques have been
developed recently, offering data rates up to hundreds of Mbps, typical examples are FDDI,
Frame Relay, Fast Ethernet, Ether Switch and. Asynchronous Transfer M ode(ATM). All of
which are designed to satisfy connectivity requirements emerging from current LAN, as well
as high-speed work stations in order to run powerful distributed multimedia applications.
ATM is superior compared to other networking technologies, as it offers high band
width, and it is scalable in the sense th at th e bandwidth capacity of an ATM system is not
fundamentally limited to the technology itself. ATM can support multimedia traffic offering
seamless integration with wide area ATM networks, both public and private. M ultistar or
mesh-connected switched networks based on B-ISDN/ATM technology is not only capable
of providing large scalable bandwidth at reasonable cost, but will also facilitate easy and
124
smooth integration with public networks for universal access to various rem ote medical fa
cilities. Since ATM is emerging as an international standard, eventually it will be widely
available and it will be supported by the public telecommunication facilities. ATM LANs
can support twenty times the peak bandwidth of FDDI. W ith the growing imaging modali
ties and increasing number of images per exam , FDDI, T l , Ethernet-based PACS will soon
reach their maximum capacity. A TM /SO N ET interfaces currently available range from 45
Mbps to 622 Mbps, interfaces a t 2.5 Gbps will soon be a\'ailable. Although Frame Relay,
SMDS provide capabilities similar to ATM, they are not widely accepted as international
standards, and most phone companies do n ot provide these services. Thus, an ATM-based
broadband network will be a cost-effective solution for providing scalable, m odular and flex
ible high-speed LAN and MAN services. Several universities and hospitals have developed
PACS based on ATM [57][59][60][61]. Though all of these are prototypes, the experience
they have gained is valuable in developing future PACS based on ATM.
It is interesting to note th a t, although most of the places have used different net
working environments and services, there are agreements in some basic communication
requirements. During the design, development or trial phase of the medical communication
systems mentioned above, several limitations were identified and im portant observations
were made. These can be summarized as follows:
• To achieve the goal of a totally digital radiology system and other PACS objectives
mentioned in the previous sections, and to overcome the drawbacks of the present
communiation systems, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode( ATM )/Synchronous Optical
Network]SONET) based Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN)
compatible architectures should be considered since they can easily take advantage
125
of the evolving public high-speed telecommunication network services. By adapting
an international standard, smooth integration with o th er compatible systems will be
possible. This will also eliminate the need for any packet format or protocol conversion
which can prove to be a bottleneck in high-speed networking environments.
• Image compression board can also be a bottleneck since they are significantly slower
than the available transmission speeds. Moreover, lossy image compression is not
trusted in the medical community. Only about 3:1 compression ratio can be obtained
if lossless compression algorithms are used. Thus, focus should be on providing high
bandw idth networks rather than to image compressions for reducing the bandwidth
requirements.
• T l lines connecting high-speed servers can be a bottleneck. More flexible and scalable
connections like switched, on-demand virtual circuits should be explored.
• Non-uniform design of PACS at different departm ents of a medical complex wUl dis
allow smooth integration of departm ental PACS into Global PACS. T he design phase
should take into consideration all th e departm ents th a t can potentially benifit from
integrated Global PACS.
• Delay between th e display of two successive images should not exceed 0.5 seconds.
Adaptive routing methods and intelligent flow and admission control schemes are to
be developed to guarantee the desired grade of service.
• For better management, low response time and good image quality, a distributed
architecture for image storage databases should be considered.
• Display workstations th at can handle ATM should be developed. A prototype de-
126
signed at the Washington University as part of their “Project Zeus” is shown in figure
5.1 [57].
5.1.1 Migration to ATM:
ATM technology can provide the high bandw idth and scalability required for PACS network
traffic; however, migration to ATM is complicated by the lim itations of existing PACS.
The steps involved in developing effective migration strategies for incorporating ATM into
existing PACS are:
• Characterization of traffic flow.
• Development of network delay model.
• Design Optimization.
• Estim ates of future traffic.
The present large-scale PACS are based on a distributed architecture, several com
mercially available sub-systems and departm ental “mini-PACS” are integrated into the
system. Multiple networks are used to support the flow of image d a ta traffic within the
PACS. Generally, image flow in the network is from the imaging m odality devices to the
display workstations and from the image archive to the display w orkstation. The delays in
the image flow were found to be because of:
• The network transfer delay from the scanner to the acquisition com puter.
• The reform atting and decompression of the images at the acquisition computer.
• The network transfer delay from the acquisition com puter to th e image server.
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• The network transfer delay from th e image server to the display workstation.
• Queuing delays.
• The access delay in retrieving the images from the optical juke box.
It was shown that the m ost significant delays in the system were due to acquisition
and archive retrieval processes [154]. It was found th a t the various imaging modalities and
sub-systems were utilizing a very low percentage of the available ethem et bandwidth [60].
Hence simply using ATM to increase network bandwidth will not necessarily increase image
throughput. Commercially available, intelligent ethem et and FDDI hubs should be used in
combination with ATM switches.
The hubs can effectively segment existing networks into many segments and each
segment can be connected to one p o rt of an ethem et switch. Ethernet switches are available
which provide an aggregate capacity of 100 Mbps for communication with th e nodes in the
sam e segment [171]. Some hubs are equipped with an ATM interface th a t can connect to
ATM switches.
The design of the network should be optimized for providing the minimal delay
for the transfer of images. The architecture should also be cost-optimal, provide increased
capacity, and m ust be scalable and interoperable. One possible design is to use the ATM
switches connected to each other in an arb itrary topology forming a backbone network. The
stations requiring high bandwidth can be connected directly to the backbone network (for
example an image server, display w orkstations) through a high speed (OC-3) connection.
The ethem et switches can also be provided with OC-3 connections to the backbone net
work thereby providing connections to the computers in the rest of the network. A PACS
architecture beised on ATM communication backbone is shown in figure 5.2 [60].
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130
5.1.2 ATM LANs:
It has been identified th at the local area network is a m ajor bottleneck in the realisation
of a complete PACS [27][60][97][98]. ATM can be deployed to alleviate congested servers
and backbones. But care should be taken before m igrating into an ATM environment. One
cannot simply move from the existing infrastructure, discarding or modifying all existing
equipment and systems is im practical and wUl prove to be very expensive. Effective migra
tion strategies should be developed in order to integrate the existing technologies, products
and systems with ATM.
The infrastructure for present generation PACS is built around “legacy LANs” such
as E them et, Token Ring, FDDI etc.. To be successful in such an environment, an ATM
network has to provide services th a t permit the reuse of the vast base of existing LAN
applications by “ATM stations” ( stations attached directly to an ATM switch) and allow
an easy interworking with those stations attached to the legacy LANs.
Legacy LANs and ATM differ in the following ways:
• Legacy LANs are connectionless, whereas ATM networks natively support only con
nection oriented services.
• Legacy LANs use broadcast and multicast media, while ATM uses a nonbroadcast
multiple access(NBMA) medium [93][94][96]. In the broadcast model, every message
sent is available for reception by every station on the network segment. In the NBMA
model, messages are visible only to the sender and the recepient (for point-to-point
connections) or to the sender and the recepient list (for point-to-multipoint connec
tions).
131
• In legacy LANs, segments are connected together with bridges and routers. ATM
networks are joined together using switches.
• Legacy LANs use MAC addressing. ATM uses a telephone-number-like addressing
scheme [30].
• In legacy LANs information is exchanged in Protocol D ata U nits(PD U s), which are
frames(or messages) with variable sizes of up to 18 kbytes. ATM is a cell based
technology with a fixed cell size of 53 bytes.
Most LAN equipment conforms to the IEEE 802 family of protocols. In this archi
tecture, the d ata link layer is split into the logical link control(LLC) and medium access
control(MAC) sublayers. The LLC sublayer offers a common interface to the network layer,
while each different MAC protocol is specific to a particular LAN, e.g., C SM A/CD, Token
Ring, Token Bus, etc. It is possible to interface ATM directly to the tran sp o rt layer or the
network layer of the OSI model. This offers efficiency by avoiding th e unnecessary com
plexity of the d ata link layer. However, there are many network layer protocols, and each
one would have to be interfaced to ATM seperately. To offer general com patibility with the
installed base of networks and protocols, regardless of the network layer and upper layer
protocol stack, and to support transparent MAC bridging, an interface at the MAC sublayer
is required. This will perm it the huge legacy of existing LAN applications to migrate to the
ATM environment without m ajor upheaval.
At present there are two schemes to support connectionless service over ATM.
namely LAN Emulation proposed by the ATM Forum and Classical IP and ARP over
ATM proposed by IT U -T ’s Internet Engineering Task Force(lETF).
132
L A N Emulation:
The LAN Emulation(LE) service [94][96][97] is exclusively designed to support three config
uration scenarios: ATM-ATM interworking figure 5.3 [97], ATM-LAN interworking figure
5.4, and LAN-LAN interconnection figure 5.5. Under this scheme, a new ATM MAC sub
layer is needed beneath the LLC sublayer and gives the appearance of a virtual shared
medium such as IEEE 802.x LAN.
As standardized by the ATM Forum, a LAN Emulation service consists of the fol
lowing three components:
• LAN Em ulation Server(LES). The LES provides a facility for registration and resolv
ing a MAC address into an ATM address.
• Broadcast/ Unknown Server(BUS). The BUS forwards m ulticast/broadcast frames and
delivers unicast frames for an unregistered or address-unresolvable LAN host.
• LAN Em ulation Configuration Server(LECS). The LEGS locates the LES and obtains
configuration information for each ATM segment.
The three components o f LE service can be implemented on a single physical entity
or distributed on several physical entities. A device attached directly to an ATM switch con
tains a LAN Emulation Client(LEC). The protocol layers of an LEG is shown in figure 5.6.
The main function of the LEG is to communicate with remote LE service components(LES,
BUS, and LEGS). The LEG is identified by two addresses: a unique 6-byte MAC address
and a 20-byte ATM address. For unicast traffic, the source LEG first sends an LE-ARP
request to LES, asking for the ATM address of the destination LEG. W ith the LE-ARP
reply from LES. the LEG establishes a direct VC connection to th at ATM address, and the
133
Figure 5.3: ATM-ATM Interworking
134
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Figure 5.4: ATM-LAN Interworking
135
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Figure 5.5: LAN-LAN Interworking
136
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d ata frame transfer commences. If the LES does not get the address of the destination LEC
in its address table, the source LEC sends the d ata frame to the BUS, which broadcasts
to all stations on the ATM network. For m ulticast/broadcast traffic, the source LEC sends
the data frame to the BUS for broadcast to all attached stations. Only those LECs whose
MAC address are part of this group MAC address take the d ata frame.
W ithin ATM stations, the LE service is provided by the LE layer. The LE layer
shields the higher layer protocol stacks from the characteristics of the ATM network and
gives them the illusion of being directly attached to a traditional LAN. The LE service
provides functions related to initialization, registration, address resolution, and forwarding
of unicast or multicast frames.
LAN Emulation is well suited for small networks,due to its protocol independence
and high speed. Multiple emulated LANs can be interconnected through traditional bridg
ing or routing techniques. But it would be im practical to interconnect multiple emulated
LANs through a wide area ATM network by means of bridging as it will lead to perfor
mance limitations because of increasing broadcast traffic [96][97]. The LE architecture is
137
based on using a single BUS for the distribution of all broadcast and multicast frames this
leads to a single point of failure. A failure in the operation of the BUS wiU lead to inter
ruption of the service for aU clients belonging to an em ulated LAN. Future work needs to
investigate possibilities for introducing redundancy and hence improve reliability in BUS
implementations. Also, the emulated LANs hide much of ATM’s functionality from the end
host’s higher layer protocols. This is the main reason for the standards bodies to specify
mechanisms for running IP and other layer 3 protocols directly over ATM. There is also
a need for a method to provide connectivity among members of different emulated LANs
w ithout the need o f interm ediate components like bridges and routers.
C lassical IP over ATM:
Classiczd IP over ATM (RFC 1577 of IE T F ) is a mechanism to run IP directly over ATM. In
this model shown in figure 5.7, users attach nodes to the ‘cloud’ at UNI points. Signaling
services a t the UNI [27][30] enable users to establish Switched Virtual Channels(SVCs)[98]
to nodes attached a t other UNI points on the same cloud. The cloud may be as simple as
a small switch, or a WAN spanning hundreds or thousands of switches. W ith appropriate
internetwork signaling procedures (across the NNI) the cloud may extend its edges to en
compass both public and private UNI points. Nodes attached at each UNI are identified by
one or more ATM addresses.
In the classical model, a logical IP subnetwork(LIS) consists of hosts and routers
having the same subnetwork address and netmask. Hosts connected to th e same subnetwork
communicate directly. However, communication between two hosts on different LISs is only
possible through an IP router, regardless of whether direct ATM connectivity is possible
between these two hosts.
138
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139
Even though classical IP over ARP is very simple to implement and does not require
any changes to existing systems, it is very limited, since communication between hosts on
different subnets must occur through a router, even though it may be possible to open a
direct VC between the two IP end stations over the ATM network. This is a significant
limitation for an ATM based network. Currently, the Routing Over Larger Clouds (ROLC)
working group of the IE T F is investigating the possibility of setting up direct connections
across ATM [99]. W ith this aim, the ROLC working group is working on a new protocol
named “Next Hop Resolution Protocol” (N HRP) which relies on the use of “super” servers.
The ultim ate goal of the NHRP protocol is to enable a host to bypass some or all of the
routers between source and destination hosts by establishing a direct connection through
the ATM switches.
The classical IP over ATM has a number of weaknesses [98]. F irst, end-to-end
quality of service (QOS) cannot be guaranteed as d ata traverses through several IP routers
which do not allocate resources. Second, it does not scale well to the large size of the
eventual ATM network due to a large num ber of routers. The NHRP protocol described by
lE T F ’s ROLC working group uses a num ber of servers for setting up connections. This adds
complexity for network m anagem ent, and introduces more network failure points. Also, a
large number of networks are mixed protocol environments, an IP only solution may not be
easily acceptible in such a case.
5.2 Issues to be resolved:
It is necessary to develop protocols which expose ATM to the higher layers instead of hiding
it. At the datalink layer, ATM offers a number of features, such as high bandw idth and
140
per-connection quality of service (QoS) guarantees, making it particularly attractive to
multimedia applications. However, the existing protocols like LAN Emulation and IP over
ARP in their effort to provide connection-less service over th e connection oriented ATM
employ techniques which make it a point to obscure ATM from the higher layers. Also,
the higher layer protocols like T C P /IP with all their processing overheads fail to extend
the benifits pf ATM to their applications. There is a need to develop application specific
“light-weight” protocols to improve the the utilization of the features of ATM (It was shown
that only twenty percent of the bandwidth offered by FDDI and Ultranet was utilized with
T C P /IP [60]). Protocols should be designed which separate th e control and d ata flows of
the multimedia traffic. Such a design allows an application to control the d a ta flow while
delegating the d a ta path to a more efficient device-to-device level, where devices (cameras,
display w orkstations), rather than the processes are the real end points of communication.
At present ATM network service is limited to perm anent virtual circuits (PVCs),
which requires subscriber connections to be preconfigured. This approach is well suited for
small networks, but it has been shown that an approach based on switched virtual circuits
(SVCs) is necessary for providing a flexible large scale network. SVCs are not available
yet [30][97], quicker standardization efforts are necessary to bring ATM to the radiologists
desktop.
ATM network services are available from the m ajor local exchange carriers (LECs).
interexchange carriers (lECs), and competitive access providers (CAPs). T he LECs provid
ing ATM services include GTE and the BeU operating companies (Ameritec. BEU Atlantic.
BellSouth, Pacific Bell, US W est). M ajor lECs offering ATM services include AT&T, MCI,
and Sprint, while CAPs include LDDS W orldCom, MFS D ataN et, and Teleport. Most
141
carriers do not provide access links below T-3 and then jum p to OC-3. It is necessary to
provide access links over T-1 to bring ATM to th e desktop. Also, there is currently no
inter-carrier linkage, which is necessary for ATM communication between users connected
to different carriers. Such a facility is required in case of emergency review of medical cases,
when the radiologist and physicians are attached to links provided by different carriers.
There is also no standard set of applications supported by all of the ATM service providers.
Each provider has its own specific type of services.
There is a need for faster standardization of protocols to ensure the development
of a high bandwidth world wide internetwork. N-ISDN failed to proliferate because of slow
standardization efforts. It has been decided th a t ATM wUl provide the tran sp o rt service for
B-ISDN, but slow standardization efforts are resulting in services like Frame Relay to gain
popularity among business users. This might jeopardize the realization of the much touted
B-ISDN. And already most hospitals are switching to ATM believing in the availability of
a uniform public broad band network.
For remote consultation; tele-education; and access to medical inform ation in facili
ties like National Library of Medicines's (NLM’s) Unified Medical Library System (UMLS)
[58][59], the medical professionals and students rely on the Internet. For faster service, the
Internet should be based on higher speeds than th e 45 Mbps which it now runs on.
The ATM Forum’s Multiprotocol Over ATM is not yet standardized. T h e develop
ment of this specification is necessary to ease th e transition of ATM network technology
into the existing networks. Bridges and routers form the bottleneck of any internetw ork, a
m ethod to provide connectivity among LANs w ithout the need of intermediate bridges and
routers should be developed.
142
In a large scale PACS, the optical juke box is still a single point failure [117][138].
Most reliability solutions do not provide redundancy here because of the high costs. Imple
mentations of newly defined archive standards like CD-R (Compact Disk-Recordable) and
HD-CD (High Density Compact Disk) should be considered [172].
D ata compression is still a m ajor issue. Although new algorithms using Wavelet
compression provide for visibly lossless compression on standard X-ray images a t compres
sion rates of more than 30:1, they are still not used widely in the medical imaging field.
Security is of prime concern in any networking environment, more so in a medi
cal network. High-speed encryption methods, high-performance key-agility techniques and
methods for cryptographic system synchronization are being developed [165][173], their
implementation in ATM based PACS should be considered.
Traffic control is one of the most challenging areas in the development of broadband
ATM networks. Most of the solutions proposed suffer from serious shortcomings. Some
are simple but include many approximations and assumptions th at are hard to justify.
Others include complicated m athem atical solutions th a t may not be feasible for real-time
implementation. The use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) should be considered for
ATM traffic control [174]. It has been shown th at traffic policing mechanisms based on
neural networks are more effective than algorithmic ones such as leaky-bucket and others.
Network interface units (NIUs) and Medical equipment interfaces to ATM networks are still
expensive and not widely available, research should focus on developing faster interfaces for
the various modalities. The radiologist display workstation is another area which merits
a lot of attention. The American College of Radiology (ACR) currently recommends that
small m atrix images be digitized and displayed with a minimum of 500 x 500piie/s x 8
143
bits per pixel, large m atrix images be digitized with a minimum of 2000 x 2000pfie/s x 12
bits per pixel. Monitors th a t can handle this kind of resolution are commercially available.
But for images like mammographs with m atrix sizes of x ok, display m onitors are not
commercially available. Also, user-friendly PACS software which can take advantage of the
presently available display workstations needs to be developed.
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

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Technology to Picture Archiving and Communication Systems

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Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone net­

standards bodies as the transfer mode for implementing B-ISDN.

on ATM-based networks, and PACS.

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii

2.7.1 ISDN L a y e rs :.................................................................................................... 38

Asynchronous Transfer Mode 48

Picture Archiving and Communication Systems 82

4.4.3 Full Hospital P A C S :........................................................................................ 107

2.1 The OSI M o d e l............................................................................................................. 11

3.1 A Typical ATM T o p o lo g y ......................................................................................... 50

4.1 HIS/RIS-PACS Transfer of I n f o r m a tio n ............................................................... 88

5.1 A PACS W orkstation................................................................................................... 127

2.1 ISDN Layer 3 M e s s a g e s ............................................................................................. 41

4.1 Standards for Transfering Messages and D ata ......................................................... 99

make use of d ata processing functions or services performed at another location.

are generally limited to a single building or a group of buildings.

facilities or packet-switching technologies for communication[4][5].

packet switching and tim e division multiple access(TDMA)[6][7].

no single user needs m ore th an a small percentage of the to ta l capacity of th e transmission

Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone n et­

A new standard called Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN) was developed to

a 16 kbps D channel (2B -fD ). Primary ra te access comprises of 23 B channels and a 64

kbps D channel (23B-I-D) [11][12].

Network(B-ISDN) [13][14][15][16]. B-ISDN includes 64 kbps ISDN capabilities and provides

technologies, the International Standards O rganization’s (ISO’s) Open System Interconnec­

A B-ISDN call may consist of a number of virtual connections th a t may be point-to-

point or m ultipoint, symmetric or asymmetric, unidirectional or bidirectional, and switched

W ith th e increasing number of users per network, and increasing user-bandwidth

boosts bandw idth demands of current applications. In addition, emerging data-intensive

networking technologies in use.

allocated among connections and users.

services, including real-time services such as voice and video [30][31].

One of the main advantage of ATM-based networks is th a t the multiplexing and

dedicated to the concepts of ATM.

recordings. It consists of two or more sites connected by a wide area network(WAN) or a

m etropolitan area network(MAN) communication system [40][41][42].

consulting-at-a-distance with sub-speciality radiologists, and provides radiologists immedi­

and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) [43][44][45].

high speed networks [57][58][59][60].

In chapter 4, the various components which constitute a PACS, and th e issues of

few of the proprietary networks, some of these systems have used.

recommendations. M igration to ATM is complicated by the limitations of existing PACS,

The proliferation of computer networks has necessitated th e development of a common set of

describes the features of B-ISDN.

Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone net

Specially designed telecommunication networks like public switched telephone n et

technologies, the International Standards O rganization’s (ISO’s) Open System Interconnec

consulting-at-a-distance with sub-speciality radiologists, and provides radiologists immedi

This layer is concerned with th e syntax of d a ta th a t is to be exchanged between two com

to use microwave or infrared transmission links where it is difficult to physically inter