Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

ATM - 1

An Overview of ATM
A technology for multiplexing fixed-length

cells from a variety of sources to a variety of remote locations. Capable of moving data at a wide range of speeds, but aimed at very high speed (1001000 Mb/s). Capable of handling data from a variety of media (e.g. voice, video, and data) using a single interface. ATM is a connection-oriented protocol. Connections can be switched or permanent. Signalling procedures are used to set up switched calls. Certain quality of service (QoS) is guaranteed for each connection . QoS parameters may include as cell loss rate, max./avg. cell delay,

ATM - 2

An Overview of ATM

ATM operates on a best effort basis; cells with

errors, or that encounter congestion, are silently dropped. Two types of connections: point-to-point and multipoint. Service Carried in Fixed Length Cells (53 octets).
5 Octets Header 48 Octets Payload

ATM - 3

ATM Networking

IS

IS

IS

ES ES UNI: User-Network Interface NNI: Network-Network

ATM - 4

ATM Cell Format

GFC
4

VPI
8

VCI
16

PTI CLP HEC

3 1 8

48 Octets

(a) UNI Cell format

VPI
12

VCI
16

PTI CLP HEC

3 1 8

48 Octets

(b) NNI Cell format

GFC: Generic Flow Control (4 bits). Used by the flow

control mechanism at the UNI. VPI: Virtual Path Identifier (8 bits). Used for directing cells within the ATM network. VCI: Virtual Channel Identifier (16 bits). PTI: Payload Type Identifier (3 bits). Identifies the type of data being carried by the cell. CLP: Cell Loss Priority (1 bit). 1 = low priority. HEC: Header Error Correction (8 bits). Generated and inserted by the physical layer. For first 4 octets. Correct single-bit errors and detect some multiple-bit errors.

bit 1: AAL indication bit 2: EFCI (upstream congestion) bit 3: data or OAM cells

ATM - 5

Pre-assigned VPI/VCI Values

Unassigned Cell Indication (VPI = 0, VCI = 0) Meta signalling (VCI=1)
Meta signalling is the bootstrap procedure used to establish and release a signalling VC. Not used for PVC setup.

General broadcasting signalling (VCI=2) OAM F4 flow indication -- segment and end-

to-end (VCI=3 and VCI=4)

F4: VP level OAM F5: VC level OAM, segment or end-to-end (PT=100 or 101)

Point-to-Point Signalling (VCI=5) Carriage of Interim Local Management

Interface (ILMI) messages (VPI=0, VCI=16)

ATM - 6

Preassigned, Reserved VPI/VCI Values

Usage
Unassigned Cell Idle Cell Reserved for Physical layer Meta signalling General broadcast signalling Point-to-point signalling Segment OAM F4 Flow Cell End-to-end OAM F4 Flow Cell Segment OAM F5 Flow Cell End-to-end OAM F5 Flow Cell Resource Management Cell

VPI
00000000 00000000 00000000 xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy

VCI
0000000 0000000 0000000 0000000 0000000 0000000 0000000 0000001 0000000 0000010 0000000 0000101 0000000 0000011 0000000 0000100 zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz

PT CLP
xxx 000 ppp 0A0 0AA 0AA 0A0 0A0 100 101 110 0 1 1 C C C A A A A A

x: Dont care y: Any value z: Any non-zero value C: Orignator set CLP A: Used by appropriate function p: Reserved for Physical layer

ATM - 7

Cell Multiplexing and Cell Switching Examples

VPI/VCI OP New VPI/VCI

100 200

1 2

300 400

200

100

200

100

100

UTP SMF MMF

100 150 150 150 100

0
300 400 300 300 400

0 1

100

100

UTP
300 300 300

1 2 3
VPI/VCI OP New VPI/VCI
100

SMF
400 200 200 400 200

100

2
200 200

MMF UTP

200

UTP

3 ATM Switch

100 150

0 2

100 200
ATM - 8

ATM Protocol Stack

Management plane

Control plane Higher Layers

User plane Higher Layers

ATM Adaptation Layer ATM Layer

Virtual Channel Functions Virtual Path Functions

Plane management Layer management

Physical Layer (PMD)

ATM - 9

ATM Layer Service

Transparent transfer of 48-octet data unit Deliver data in sequence on a connection Two levels of multiplexing (VC, VP) Three types of connections
Point-to-point Point-to-Multipoint Multipoint-to-Multipoint (??)

Transport is best-effort Network QoS negotiation Traffic control and congestion control

ATM - 10

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

ATM - 11

Cell Rate Decoupling and Cell Discrimination

Cell Rate Decoupling
ATM sending entity adds unassigned cells to the assigned cell stream in order to adjust to the cell rate acquired by the payload capacity of the physical layer (R). The receiving ATM entity shall extract and discard the unassigned and invalid cells from the flow of cells coming from the physical layer (R).

Cell Discrimination
Meta signalling General broadcast signalling Point-ot-point Signalling Segment OAM F4 flow cell End-to-end OAM F4 flow cell ILMI message User data
ATM - 12

Virtual Channels, Virtual Paths, and the Physical Channel

100 200 100 200 300 10 20 30 40

100 200 300

300/40

100
100/100

100 200 100 200 300 10 20 30 40

300/10 200/300

200 300

(VPI/VCI) = (100,100),(100,200),(200,100), (200,200),(200,300),(300,10), (300,20),(300,30),(300,40)

ATM - 13

Physical Link, Virtual Path, and Virtual Channel

virtual channel connection VC link virtual channel link virtual path connection VP link VP link transmission path

ATM Layer

Phy. Layer

Digital Section

Regenerator Section Crossing point Endpoint

ATM - 14

Virtual Channels
The virtual Channel (VC) is the fundamental unit of transport in a B-ISDN. Each ATM cell contains an explicit label in its header to identify the virtual channel.
a Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) a Virtual Path Identifier (VPI)

A virtual channel (VC) is a communication channel that provides for the transport of ATM cells between two or more endpoints for the purpose of user-user, user-network, network-network information transfer. The points at which the ATM cell information payload is passed to a higher layer signify the endpoints of a VC. A Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) identifiers a particular VC within a particular VP over a UNI or NNI.

ATM - 15

Virtual Paths
A Virtual Path (VP) is a group of Virtual Channels that are carried on the same physical facility and at a given reference point in the VP share the same Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) value. The VP boundaries are delimited by Virtual Path Terminators (VPT). AT VPTs, both VPI and VCI are processed. Between VPTs associated with the same VP, only the VPI values are processed (and translated) at ATM network elements. The VCI values are processed only at VPTs, and are not translated at intermediate ATM network elements.

ATM - 16

Why Virtual Paths and Virtual Channel ?

Assume the identification field contains 8 bits. All used as VCI. Then the size of the mapping table is 256.
VCI OP 2 2 2 New VCI (2) (35) (254) VCI OP 1 1 1 New VCI (3) (255) (38)

0 (1) 1 (127)
(208)

0 (2) 1 (35)
(254)

255
(1) (127) (208)
0 1 255

255
(3) (2) (35) (254) (255) (38)
0 1 255

ATM - 17

Why Virtual Paths and Virtual Channels ?

Assume the identification field contains 8 bits. VPI takes 3 bits and VCI takes 5 bits. Then the size of the mapping table is 8.
(0/1) (1/31) (7/25) (1/1) (0/31) (7/25)

0 1 31 0 1 31 0 1 31

0 1 7

0
(7/1) (0/31) (1/25)

1 7
VPI OP 1 1 1 New VPI (1) (0) (7)

0
VPI OP 2 2 2 New VPI (7) (0) (1)

1 7

0 1 7

(0) (1) (7)

0 1 7

(7) (0) (1)

ATM - 18

Virtual Channels Examples

Port (a,1) New VPI/VCI OP VPI/VCI Port (c,2) New VPI/VCI OP VPI/VCI (200,10) 4 (300,10) (100,10) 2 (100,20) 2 (100,10) (200,10) (200,20)

1 2 VPI/VCI (100,10) (100,20)

A
(100,20)

a
2 2

4 (300,10)

VPI/VCI (300,10)

1 VPI/VCI (300,10)

(200,20) (300,10)

(200,10)

(200,10) (100,20) 1

1 VPI/VCI (100,10)

C
(100,10)

4 3

(300,20)

VPI/VCI (100,20)

Port (b,1) New VPI/VCI OP VPI/VCI (200,10) 3 (200,20) 2 (300,20) (300,10)

Port (d, 1) New VPI/VCI OP VPI/VCI (300,20) 2 (100,20)

Port (b, 2) New VPI/VCI OP VPI/VCI (100,10) 4 (200,10)

ATM - 19

Virtual Path/Virtual Channel (VP/VC) Switches

VC1

A
VC2

VP1

VP Switch

VP3

SW1

SW4

VP/VC Switch (VP Terminator, VPT)

SW3

VP2
VC4
SW2 SW5

VP4

VC3

ATM - 20

ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL)

AAL Reference Structure AAL Type 1 AAL Type 2 AAL Type 3/4 AAL Type 5 SAAL
Control plane Higher Layers User plane Higher Layers Management plane

ATM Adaptation Layer ATM Layer

Virtual Channel Functions Virtual Path Functions

Plane management

Physical Layer (PMD)

Layer management

ATM - 21

AAL Reference Structure

SAP Service Specific CS (SCCS) (may be Null) Primitives Convergence Sublayer (CS)

AAL

Common Part CS (CPCS) Primitives SAR(Common) SAR

SAP
ATM - 22

AAL

Service Specific Layers L a y e r AAL ATM

Transmission Convergence Sublayer

message
48 byte payloads

...
add 5 byte header

...

M G M T

PMD

ATM - 23

AAL Functions

Functions Error Detection Framing of user data units Cell sequence indication Multiplexing Error Correction Flow Control Timing Recovery

Parameters CRC, length, correlation tags Payload type/segment type Cell sequence count field Message ID (MID) FEC, retransmission Credit window Time stamp

ATM - 24

ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL)

In order to carry data units longer than 48

octets in ATM cells, an adaptation layer is needed. The ATM adaptation layer (AAL) provides for segmentation and reassembly of higher-layer data units and for detection of errors in transmission. Since the ATM layer simply carries cells without concern for their contents, a number of different AALs can be used across a single ATM interface. The AAL maps the user, control, or management protocol data units into the information field of the ATM cell and vice versa. To reflect the spectrum of applications, four service classes have been defined by CCITT.

ATM - 25

CCITT Services Classifications

Attribute
Timing between source and destination

Class A
Circuit Emulation

Class B

Class C

Class D
Datagram

Packetized Connection voice/video Oriented Data

Required

Not required

Bit Rate Connection mode

Constant

Variable

Connection oriented

Connectionless

Examples: Class A (CBR): 64kbps digital voice Class B (rt-VBR, nrt-VBR): Variable bit rate encoded video Class C (UBR,ABR): Frame Relay over ATM, File Transfer (Telnet, FTP, TCP),... Class D (ABR): SMDS over ATM, IP over ATM,... Class X: Raw Cell Service (e.g., proprietary AAL)
ATM - 26

AAL Service Classification

Class A
Circuit Emulation

Class B

Class C

Class D
Datagram

Attribute AAL1
Timing between source and destination

Packetized Connection voice/video Oriented Data

Signalling

(Q.93B) SAAL

AAL2

AAL 3

AAL 4

AAL 5
Not required

Required

Bit Rate Connection Mode

Constant

Variable

Connection oriented

Connectionless

ATM - 27

AAL Types
Five AALs have been accepted for consideration

by the CCITT. AAL 1 is meant for constant-bit-rate services (voice). AAL 2 is meant for variable-bit-rate services with a required timing relationship between source and destination (audio and video). AAL 3 was originally meant for connectionoriented variable -bit-rate services without a required timing relationship; it has now been merged with AAL 4. AAL 3/4 and 5 are meant for connectionless services (e.g. connectionless data). Only AALs 3/4 and 5 are of interest for IP networking.

ATM - 28

AAL 1 (Constant Bit Rate CBR) Functions

Emulation of DS1 and DS3 Circuits Distribution with forward error correction Handle cell delay for constant bit rate Transfer timing information between source and

destination Transfer structure information (structure pointer) Provide indication of unrecoverable lost or errored information SAR PDU
Header SN SNP 47 Octets Payload

CSI
1

Seq Count
3

CRC EP
3 1

ATM - 29

AAL1 Supports Circuit Emulation

Synchronous Residual Time Stamp (SRTS)
DS1, DS3 Require accurate frequency clock 4-bit Residual Time Stamp (RTS) for clock aligning RTS is generated once every 8 cell times, carried in CSI bit of odd cells

Structured Data Transfer (SDT)

nxDS0 (64kbps) 1-octect pointer carried in payload once every two cells (even cells) indicates the offset into the current payload of the first octect of an nxDS0 payload The octect contains 1 reserved bit and 7-bit offset field which points to start of up to 93 octect structure (47+46=93)

ATM - 30

AAL 2 (VBR) Protocol Data Unit (PDU)

ATM PDU SAR PDU
Header SN IT 47 Octets Payload LI CRC

SN: Sequence number IT: Information Type:BOM,COM,EOM,SSM Length Indicator

ATM - 31

AAL 3/4
The variable bit rate (VBR) adaptation layer,

defined in CCITT recommendation I.363, is defined for services (e.g. data) that require bursty bandwidth. Comprises two sublayers:
the convergence sublayer (CS) the segmentation and reassembly sublayer (SAR)

ATM - 32

AAL 3/4 CS and SAR PDU Structures

CS-PDU Header 4 Octets

CS-PDU User Information <= 65,535 Octets

PAD 0-3 Octets

CS-PDU Trailer 4 Octets

Common Part Indicator 1

BTag 1

BASize 2

Alignment

ETag 1

CS User Infor. Length 2

CPI:00000000 Btag/Etag: Beginning/Ending Tag -- 256 increment counters BAsize: receiving side maximum buffering requirement (>= CPCS-PDU) Pad: make CPCS-PDU on 32-bit boundary AL(Alignment): make trailer 32-bit aligned Length: CPCS-PDU size

ATM - 33

AAL 3/4 SAR Sublayer

SAR-PDU Header 2 Octets

Segmentation Unit ,SAR-PDU Payload 44 Octets p

SAR-PDU Trailer 2 Octets

SAR Type 2

SAR SN 4 1

MID 9

Length 6

SAR-PDU CRC 10

ST: COM(00),BOM(10),EOM(01),SSM(11) SN: Modulo 16 sequence counter P(Priority): 1- Priority CS-PDU, 0- Normal CS-PDU MID (Multiplexing ID) -- Multiplexing multiple CPCS connections on a

single ATM connection

LI: Length <=44 CRC on Cell Header, SAR-PDU payload and LI
ATM - 34

AAL 5 PDU Structure

The Simple and Efficient Adaptation Layer

(SEAL), attempts to reduce the complexity and overhead of AAL 3/4. It eliminates most of the protocol overhead of AAL 3/4. AAL 5 comprises a convergence sublayer and a SAR sublayer, although the SAR is CS-PDU PAD essentially null. User Information CS-PDU
<= 65,535 Octets
0-47 Octets Trailer 8 Octets

Protocol Control
2

Length
2

CRC
4

ATM - 35

AAL 5 Segmentation and Reassembly

User SDU
CPCS-PDU Payload (CPCS-SDU) <= 65,535 Octets
PAD 0-47 Octets CS-PDU Trailer 8 Octets

48 octets More =T

48 octets More =T

User Data

User Data

...

More Data =F

ATM cell
Control

ATM cell

ATM cell

CPCS-UU -- CPCS User-to-User Indication

(1 octet). Transparently transfer CPCS user to user information CPI -- Common Part Indicator (1 octet). Align trailer to 64 bits. Possible identification of layer management message.

Control

Length

CRC-32
4

ATM - 36

AAL 5
When a network node has a user datagram to

transmit, it first converts it to a CS-PDU by adding the pad (if necessary) and trailer. Then it breaks the CS-PDU into 48-octet SARPDUs and transmits each in an ATM cell on the same virtual channel. Since there is no AAL 5 SAR header, an endof-frame indication in the ATM cell header is required: SDU type of 1 (binary value 0X1) in the PTI field. The receiver simply concatenates cells as they are received, watching for the end-offrame indication. The higher layer is responsible for ignoring PDUs with CRC errors. Some applications may discard PDUs with

ATM - 37

SAAL Structure
Primitives Service Specific Coordination Function (SSCF) Service Specific Convergence Sublayer

Service Specific Connection Oriented Peer-to-Peer Protocol (SSCOP)

Peer-to-Peer Message

Common Part

Common Part AAL Peer-to-Peer Protocol (CP-AAL) Primitives

Peer-to-Peer Message

ATM - 38

SAAL
Reside between Q.93B and ATM Layer. SAAL is used to provide reliable transport of Q.93B messages between peer Q.93B entities. SAAL CP-AAL uses AAL5 Common Part Protocol. SSCOP can be used for any reliable service. SSCF maps primitives from MTP 3 to the required SSCOP signals and vice versa, and flow control maintains link status

ATM - 39