ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE

ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE

 ATM is the name given to a connection – oriented
network technology
 Used in both local area and wide area networks
 Designed to permit high-speed switching
 Uses special purpose hardware and software
techniques to achieve high transfer speeds
 ATM consist of
- one or more high speed switches that each
connect to computers and to other ATM switches
- lowest layers of an ATM network use fixed –size
frames called cells
ATM CELL SIZE
 ATM cell is only 53 octets long
 Cell containts
- header 5 octets
- data 48 octets
CONNECTION- ORIENTED NETWORKING
 ATM differs from the packet-switching
networks because it offers connection –
oriented service
 Connection established manually or the host
interact with the switch to specify destination
 Analogous to placing a telephone call
 Requesting computer specifies the remote
computer’s address, waits for ATM switch to
find a path
 Connection succeeded – local ATM switch
chooses an identifier for connection
 Passes the connection identifier to the
computer along with a messge that informs
the success
 Computer uses connection identifier when
sending or receiving cells
 When it finishes using an ATM connection,
computer request the ATM switch for the
connection to broken
 Switch then disconnects the two computers
 Identifiers used for connection can
be recycled
 Switch can reuse the connection
identifier for a new connection
AN OVERVIEW OF ATM
 ATM operates on a best effort basis.
 ATM guarantees that cells will not be
disordered.
 Two types of connections:
 Point-to-point
 Multipoint (Multicast)

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 Four Types of Services:
 CBR (Constant Bit Rate)
 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)
 ABR (Available Bit Rate) Flow Control,
Rate-based, Credit- based
 UBR (Unspecific Bit Rate) No Flow control.
 Aggregate Bandwidth vs. Shared Medium
(FDDI, Fast Ethernet).
ATM LAYER FUNCTIONS
 Cell multiplexing and switching
 Cell rate decoupling
 Cell discrimination based on pre-defined VPI/VCI
 Quality of Service (QoS)
 Payload type characterization
 Generic flow control
 Loss priority indication and Selective cell
discarding
 Traffic shaping

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 Basic ATM Cell Format

5 Bytes 48 Bytes

Header Payload
 ATM CONCEPTUAL MODEL

1. ATM network will be organized as a

hierarchy.
User’s equipment connects to networks via a
UNI (User-Network Interface).
Connections between provided networks are
made through NNI (Network-Network
Interface).
2. ATM will be connection-oriented.
A connection (an ATM channel) must be
established before any cells are sent.

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ATM CONNECTIONS

 two levels of ATM connections:

virtual path connections
virtual channel connections
 indicated by two fields in the cell
header:
virtual path identifier VPI
virtual channel identifier VCI

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ATM ADVANTAGES
 Universality
 Mixed traffic types, real-time and non-
real-time
 Scalability
 LANs, MANs, WANs, WLANs
 Efficient use of network resources
Bandwidth on demand concept
 Simplified network infrastructure