UNIT II ATM AND BISDN _____________________________________________________________________ 2.1.

ATM PROTOCOL STRUCTURE

Figure 33 shows the ATM layered architecture as described in ITU-T recommendation I.321 (1992). This is the basis on which the B-ISDN Protocol Reference Model has been defined.

Figure 33: ATM Protocol Architecture

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ATM Physical Layer The physical layer accepts or delivers payload cells at its point of access to the ATM layer. It provides for cell delineation which enables the receiver to recover cell boundaries. It generates and verifies the HEC field. If the HEC cannot be verified or corrected, then the physical layer will discard the errored cell. Idle cells are inserted in the transmit direction and removed in the receiving direction. For the physical transmission of bits, 5 types of transmission frame adaptations are specified (by the ITU and the ATM Forum). Each one of them has its own lower bound or upper bound for the amount of bits it can carry (from 12.5 Mbps to 10 Gbps so far). 1. Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) 2. Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) 155 Mbps; 34 Mbps;

3. Cell Based 155 Mbps; 4. Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) = 100 Mbps;

5. Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)

51 Mbps.

The actual physical link could be either optical or coaxial with the possibility of Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP Category 3/5) and Shielded Twisted Pair (STP Category 5) in the mid range (12.5 to 51 Mbps).
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ATM Layer ATM layer mainly performs switching, routing and multiplexing. The characteristic features of the ATM layer are independent of the physical medium. Four functions of this layer have been identified. 1. 2. 3. 4. cell multiplexing (in the transmit direction) cell demultiplexing (at the receiving end) VPI/VCI translation cell header generation/extraction.

This layer accepts or delivers cell payloads. It adds appropriate ATM cell headers when transmitting and removes cell headers in the receiving direction so that only the cell information field is delivered to the ATM Adaptation Layer. At the ATM switching/cross connect nodes VPI and VCI translation occurs. At a VC switch new values of VPI and VCI are obtained whereas at a VP switch only new values for the VPI field are obtained (see Figure 34). Depending on the direction, either the individual VPs and VCs are multiplexed into a single cell or the single cell is demultiplexed to get the individual VPs and VCs.

Figure 34: VC/VP Switching in ATM

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ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)

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The ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) is between ATM layer and the higher layers. Its basic function is the enhanced adaptation of services provided by the ATM layer to the requirements of the higher layers. This layer accepts and delivers data streams that are structured for use with user's own communication protocol. It changes these protocol data structures into ATM cell payloads when receiving and does the reverse when transmitting. It inserts timing information required by users into cell payloads or extracts from them. This is done in accordance with five AAL service classes defined as follows. 1. AAL1 - Adaptation for Constant Bit Rate (CBR) services (connection oriented, 47 byte payload); 2. AAL2 - Adaptation for Variable Bit Rate (VBR) services (connection oriented, 45 byte payload); 3. AAL3 - Adaptation for Variable Bit Rate data services (connection oriented, 44 byte payload); 4. AAL4 - Adaptation for Variable Bit Rate data services (connection less, 44 byte payload); 5. AAL5 - Adaptation for signaling and data services (48 byte payload). In the case of transfer of information in real time, AAL1 and AAL2 which support connection oriented services are important. AAL4 which supports a connection less service was originally meant for data which is sensitive to loss but not to delay. However, the introduction of AAL5 which uses a 48 byte payload with no overheads has made AAL3/4 redundant. Frame Relay and MPEG -2 (Moving Pictures Expert Group) video are two services which will specifically use AAL5. ATM SERVICES
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CBR Service This supports the transfer of information between the source and destination at a constant bit rate. CBR service uses AAL1. A typical example is the transfer of voice at 64 Kbps over ATM. Another usage is for the transport of fixed rate video. This type of service over an ATM network is sometimes called circuit emulation (similar to a voice circuit on a telephone network).

VBR Service
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This service is useful for sources with variable bit rates. Typical examples are variable bit rate audio and video.
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ABR and UBR Services The definition of CBR and VBR has resulted in two other service types called Available Bit Rate (ABR) services and Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR) services. ABR services use the instantaneous bandwidth available after allocating bandwidths for CBR and VBR services. This makes the bandwidth of the ABR service to be variable. Although there is no guaranteed time of delivery for the data transported using ABR services, the integrity of data is guaranteed. This is ideal to carry time insensitive (but loss sensitive) data such as in LAN-LAN interconnect and IP over ATM. UBR service, as the name implies, has an unspecified bit rate which the network can use to transport information relating to network management, monitoring, etc.

IP over ATM
The transmission of classical IP traffic over ATM can be accomplished as shown in figure 35.

Figure 35: Transmission of IP over ATM

2.2. TRANSMISSION OF ATM CELLS: Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a switching technique for telecommunication networks. It uses asynchronous time-division [1][2] multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from networks such as the Internet or Ethernet LANs that use variable
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sized packets or frames. ATM provides data link layer services that run over OSI Layer 1 physical links. ATM has functional similarity with both circuit switched networking and small packet switched networking. This makes it a good choice for a network that must handle both traditional highspeed data traffic (e.g., file transfers), and real-time, low-latency content such as voice and video. ATM uses aconnection-oriented model in which a virtual circuit must be established between two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins.[2]ATM is a core protocol used over the SONET/SDH backbone of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Structure of an ATM cell An ATM cell consists of a 5-byte header and a 48-byte payload. The payload size of 48 bytes was chosen as described above ("Why cell?"). ATM defines two different cell formats: NNI (Network-Network Interface) and UNI (User-Network Interface). Most ATM links use UNI cell format. Diagram of the UNI ATM Cell 7 GFC VPI VCI VCI PT CL P VCI 4 3 VPI VCI VPI VCI PT CL P 0 Diagram of the NNI ATM Cell 7 4 VPI VCI 3 0

HEC

HEC

Payload and padding if necessary (48 bytes)

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Payload and padding if necessary (48 bytes)

GFC = Generic Flow Control (4 bits) (default: 4-zero bits) VPI = Virtual Path Identifier (8 bits UNI) or (12 bits NNI) VCI = Virtual channel identifier (16 bits) PT = Payload Type (3 bits) CLP = Cell Loss Priority (1-bit) HEC = Header Error Control (8-bit CRC, polynomial = X8 + X2 + X + 1) ATM uses the PT field to designate various special kinds of cells for operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) purposes, and to delineate packet boundaries in some AALs. Several of ATM's link protocols use the HEC field to drive a CRC-Based Framing algorithm, which allows locating the ATM cells with no overhead required beyond what is otherwise needed for header protection. The 8-bit CRC is used to correct single-bit header errors and detect multi-bit header errors. When multi-bit header errors are detected, the current and subsequent cells are dropped until a cell with no header errors is found. A UNI cell reserves the GFC field for a local flow control/submultiplexing system between users. This was intended to allow several terminals to share a single network connection, in the same way that two ISDN phones can share a single basic rate ISDN connection. All four GFC bits must be zero by default. The NNI cell format replicates the UNI format almost exactly, except that the 4-bit GFC field is re-allocated to the VPI field, extending the VPI to 12 bits. Thus, a single NNI ATM interconnection is capable of addressing almost 212 VPs of up to almost 216 VCs each (in practice some of the VP and VC numbers are reserved).

2.3. ATM ADAPTATION LAYER: AAL: ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL0, AAL2, AAL3/4, and AAL5) The ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) relays ATM cells between ATM Layer and higher layer. When relaying information received from the higher layers, it segments the data into ATM cells. When relaying information received from the ATM Layer, it must
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reassemble the payloads into a format the higher layers can understand. This operation, which is called Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR), is the main task of AAL. Different AALs were defined in supporting different traffic or service expected to be used. The service classes and the corresponding types of AALs were as follows: Class A - Constant Bit Rate (CBR) service: AAL1 supports a connection-oriented service in which the bit rate is constant. Examples of this service include 64 Kbit/sec voice, fixed-rate uncompressed video and leased lines for private data networks. Class B - Variable Bit Rate (VBR) service: AAL2 supports a connection-oriented service in which the bit rate is variable but requires a bounded delay for delivery. Examples of this service include compressed packetized voice or video. The requirement on bounded delay for delivery is necessary for the receiver to reconstruct the original uncompressed voice or video. Class C - Connection-oriented data service: For connection-oriented file transfer and in general, data network applications where a connection is set up before data is transferred, this type of service has variable bit rate and does not require bounded delay for delivery. Two AAL protocols were defined to support this service class, and have been merged into a single type, called AAL3/4. But with its high complexity, the AAL5 protocol is often used to support this class of service. Class D - Connectionless data service: Examples of this service include datagram traffic and in general, data network applications where no connection is set up before data is transferred. Either AAL3/4 or AAL5 can be used to support this class of service. Operation Administration and Maintenance (OA&M) - OA&M is defined for supervision, testing, and performance monitoring. It uses loop-back for maintenance and ITU TS standard CMIP, with organization into 5 hierarchical levels: Virtual Channel (F5 - Between VC endpoints), Virtual Path (F4- Between VP endpoints), Transmission Path (F3- Between elements that perform assembling, disassembling of payload, header, or control), Digital Section (F2 Between section end-points, performs frame synchronization) and Regenerator Section (F1- Between regeneration sections). Protocol Structure - AAL: ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL0, AAL2, AAL3/4, AAL5) AAL0 PDU:

AAL0 payload consists of 48 bytes without special field, is also referred to as raw cells. AAL1 PDU: 1 SN CSI SC 3 bits 3 bits SNP CRC P 1 47 Bytes SAR Payload

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SN- Sequence number. Numbers the stream of SAR PDUs of a CPCS PDU (modulo 16). CSI- Convergence sublayer indicator. Used for residual time stamp for clocking. SC- Sequence court. NP- Sequence number protection. CRC- Cyclic redundancy check calculated over the SAR header. P- Parity calculated over the CRC. SAR PDU payload- 47-byte user information field.

AAL2 PDU: AAL2 is perfect for low-rate voice traffic, with compression, silent and idle channel suppression. AAL type 2 is subdivided into the Common Part Sublayer (CPS) and the Service Specific Convergence Sublayer (SSCS ). AAL2 CPS Packet The CPS packet consists of a 3 octet header followed by a payload. The structure of the AAL2 CPS packet is shown in the following illustration.

8bits CID

6bits LI

5bits UUI

5bits HEC AAL2 CPS packet

1-45/64 bytes Information payload

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CID- Channel identification. LI- Length indicator: the length of the packet payload associated with each individual user. Value is one less than the packet payload and has a default value of 45 bytes (may be set to 64 bytes).
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UUI- User-to-user indication. Provides a link between the CPS and an appropriate SSCS that satisfies the higher layer application. HEC- Header error control. Information payload- Contains the CPS/SSCS PDU.

AAL2 CPS PDU The structure of the AAL2 CPS PDU is shown as follows: 6bits OSF 1bit SN 1bit P 0-47 bytes AAL2 PDU payload AAL2 CPS PDU 0-47 bytes PAD

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OSF - Offset field. Identifies the location of the start of the next CPS packet within the CPS-PDU. SN - Sequence number. Protects data integrity. P - Parity. Protects the start field from errors. SAR PDU payload - Information field of the SAR PDU. PAD - Padding.

AAL2 SSCS Packet The SSCS conveys narrowband calls consisting of voice, voiceband data or circuit mode data. SSCS packets are transported as CPS packets over AAL2 connections. The CPS packet contains a SSCS payload. There are 3 SSCS packet types: Type 1 Unprotected; this is used by default; Type 2 Partially protected; and Type 3 Fully protected: the entire payload is protected by a 10-bit CRC which is computed as for OAM cells. The remaining 2 bits of the 2-octet trailer consist of the message type field. AAL2 SSCS Type 3 Packets: The AAL2 type 3 packets are used for Dialled digits, Channel associated signalling bits, Facsimile demodulated control data, Alarms and User state control operations. The general sturcture of AAL2 SSCS Type 3 PDUs is shown as follows. The format varies according to the actual message type. 2bits 14bits 16bits 6bits 10bits

Redundancy Time stamp Message dependant information Message type CRC-10 AAL2 SSCS Type 3 PDU - General Structure

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Redundancy - Packets are sent 3 times to ensure error correction. The value in this field signifies the transmission number. Time stamp - Counters packet delay variation and allows a receiver to accurately reproduce the relative timing of successive events separated by a short interval. Message dependant information Packet content that varies, depending on the message type. Message type - The message type code. CRC-10 - The 10-bit CRC.

AAL3/4 PDU: 2 ST 4 SN 10 bits MID 44 Bytes PDU Payload 6 bits LI 10 bits CRC

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ST -Segment Type: BOM (Begin of Message), COM (Continuation of Message), EOM (End of Message), SSM (Single Segment Message). SN -Sequence number. Numbers the stream of SAR PDUs of a CPCS PDU (modulo 16). MID - Multiplexing Indication PDU payload -44-byte user information field. LI -Length indicator. CRC -Cyclic redundancy check calculated over the SAR header.

AAL3/4 CS PDU: 1 CPI 1 BTag 2 bits BAsize 40 Bytes PDU Payload + PAD 1 AL 1 ETag 2 bits LEN

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CPI - Common Part Indication BTag -Beginning Tag BAsize -Buffer Allocation Size PDU payload -Variable length user information field up to 40 Bytes
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PAD -Padding (up to 3 bytes) used to cell align the trailer. AL -Alignment. A filling byte coded with zero ETag -End Tag. LEN -Length of Information Field

AAL5 CS PDU:

0-48 Bytes PDU payload

0-47 PAD

1 UU

1 CPI

2 LI

4 Bytes CRC-32

AAL5 is the simple and efficient AAL (SEAL) which is the one used most for data traffic; it has no per-cell length nor per-cell CRC fields.
y y y y y

PDU payload -Variable length user information field PAD -Padding used to cell align the trailer which may be between 0 and 47 bytes long. UU -CPCS user-to-user indication to transfer one byte of user information CPI - Common Part Indication LI -Length indicator.

For OA&M cells, there are pre-defined (reserved) VPI/VCI numbers:

y y y y

0/0 Unassigned or Idle0/1 Meta-signaling 0/3 Segment F4 Flow0/4 End-to-end F4 flow 0/5 Signaling 0/15 SMDS 0/16 Interim Layer Management Interface (ILMI)

F4/F5 OA&M PDU format:

4 bits OAM Type

4 bits Function Type

45 Bytes Function Spec

6 bits Reserve

10 bits CRC-10

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OAM type / Function type- The possible values for OAM type and function type are defined for Fault, Performance, Activation/Deactivation CRC-10 -Cyclic redundancy check calculated over the SAR header. G(x) = x10+x9+x5+x4+x+1
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2.4. CONGESTION CONTROL:

A technique for monitoring network utilization and manipulating transmission or forwarding rates for data frames to keep traffic levels from overwhelming the network medium. It gets its name because it avoids "network traffic jams".[6]

In Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, congestion control schemes may be based on fields within the ATM cell header (CLP, EFCI within the PTI) or may be based on a more sophisticated mechanism between the ATM end-system and ATM switches. The ATM Forum has developed a mechanism based on rate control for Available Bit Rate (ABR)-type traffic. In Frame Relay networks, congestion is handled by the FECN, BECN and DE bits. What causes congestion? The assumption that statistical multiplexing can be used to improve the link utilization is that the users do not reach their peak rate values simultaneously, but since the traffic demands are stochastic and cannot be predicted, congestion is unavoidable. Whenever the total input rate is greater than the output link capacity, congestion occurs. When the network becomes congested, the queue lengths may become very large in a short time, resulting in buffer overflows and cell loss. Congestion control is therefore necessary to ensure that users get the negotiated Quality of Service (QoS).[2] Misunderstandings about the causes and solutions of congestion control 1. Congestion is caused by the shortage of buffer space. The problem will be solved when the cost of memory becomes cheap enough to allow very large memory. Larger buffers are useful only for very short term congestions and will cause undesirable long delays. The long queue and long delay introduced by large memory is undesirable for many applications. 2. Congestion is caused by slow links. The problem will be solved when highspeed links become available. It is not always the case; sometimes increases in link bandwidth can aggravate the congestion problem because higher speed links may make the network more unbalanced. If two sources begin to send to destination 1 at their peak rate, congestion will occur at the switch. Higher speed links can make the congestion condition in the switch even worse. 3. Congestion is caused by slow processors. The problem will be solved when processor speed is improved. This statement can be explained to be wrong
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similarly to the second one. Faster processors will transmit more data per unit time. If several nodes begin to transmit to one destination simultaneously at their peak rate, the target will soon be overwhelmed. Congestion is a dynamic problem, and any static solutions are therefore not sufficient to solve the problem [4]. All the issues presented above: buffer shortage, slow link, slow processor are symptoms, not the causes of congestion. Proper congestion management mechanisms are more important than ever. The Problem Most networks fail to tell applications how much bandwidth is available at any given instant. As a result, applications have no basis on which to control the amount of data they send. When applications send more data than the network can handle, the network buffers fill up and can overflow. The application must then retransmit the data, which adds more traffic and further congests the network.[5] Possible solutions An ATM network performs congestion control so that ABR traffic can efficiently use the bandwidth that has not been guaranteed to Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and (Variable Bit Rate) VBR traffic. Effective congestion control reduces the need to retransmit data due to congestion. While the problem of congestion control is still under discussion in the ATM Forum, it is expected that the final solution will use a variety of techniques, including end-to-end, link-by-link, rate-based and credit-based traffic-flow control [2][5]. End-to-end versus link-by-link control A network can control congestion over an entire connection path or by sub-links. With end-to-end control, the network measures the minimum available bandwidth along the connection and communicates the amount of bandwidth to the application, which then transmits at the appropriate rate. Each link in the network simply forwards the data as fast as it receives it. Under the link-to-link technique, each link along the network connection controls its traffic flow independently. Each link buffers data as needed to adjust the incoming speed to the outgoing speed. Rate-Based versus Credit-Based control

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The rate-based traffic-flow technique constantly tells the application what transmission rate (the currently allowed rate) the sending device should use. For example, the network can tell an application that it can send 1000 cells per second. If the network becomes congested, it reduces this rate and notifies the application; when the network is no longer congested, the rate is increased. The credit-based technique is slightly different. Here, the network indicates to the sending device the amount of buffer space (credits) available in the network. For example, the application may be allowed to transmit 100 cells, after which it must wait. The network periodically replenishes the application's credits. If the network becomes congested, the application gets fewer credits and they're replenished less often. This forces the application to slow the sending of data. When the congestion clears, the number of credits is increased and replenished fast enough that the application can transmit at full speed. Integrated congestion control The integrated proposal currently under consideration by the ATM Forum provides for an end-to-end, rate-based scheme as the default method, with the link-by-link scheme as an option where more precise control is needed. Because most existing ATM equipment already offers the default method, users should soon have a standards based ABR congestion-control scheme. If the network requires a more precise congestion management scheme, the link-bylink option can be used to control ABR traffic. When a connection is made from an end-to-end device, the link-by-link device would simply perform the end-to-end flow control when talking to that device. This would preserve existing equipment, while providing for future growth. 2.5. BROADBAND ISDN: BROADBAND INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK (BISDN) Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (BISDN or Broadband ISDN) is designed to handle high-bandwidth applications. BISDN currently uses ATM technology over SONET-based transmission circuits to provide data rates from 155 to 622Mbps and beyond, contrast with the traditional narrowband ISDN (or N-ISDN), which is only 64 Kb ps basically and up to 2 Mbps. The designed Broadband ISDN (BISDN) services can be categorized as follows:
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Conversational services such as telephone-like services, which was also supported by N-ISDN. Also the additional bandwidth offered will allow such
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services as video telephony, video conferencing and high volume, high speed data transfer. Messaging services, which is mainly a store-and-forward type of service. Applications could include voice and video mail, as well as multi-media mail and traditional electronic mail. Retrieval services which provides access to (public) information stores, and information is sent to the user on demand only. No user control of presentation. This would be for instance, a TV broadcast, where the user can choose simply either to view or not. User controlled presentation. This would apply to broadcast information that the user can partially control.

The B-ISDN is designed to offer both connection oriented and connectionless services. The broadband information transfer is provided by the use of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), in cases, using end-to-end logical connections or virtual circuits. Broadband ISDN uses out-of-band signaling (as does N-ISDN). Instead of using a D Channel as in N-ISDN, a special virtual circuit channel can be used for signaling. However, B-ISDN was not widely deployed so far. Protocol Structure - B ISDN: Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (Broadband ISDN) Broadband ISDN protocol reference model is based on the ATM reference model

ATM adaptation layer (AAL). This layer is responsible for mapping the service offered by ATM to the service expected by the higher layers. It has two sublayers. ATM Layer. This layer is independent of the physical medium over which transmission is to take place. It has those functions: Generic flow control (GFC) function, Cell header generation and extraction, Cell multiplex and demultiplex.

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Physical layer. This consists of two sub layers: Transport Convergence (TC) and Physical medium (PM) The management plane consists of two functions to perform layer management and plane management. The plane management is not layered as the other layers are. This is because it relies needs information on all aspects of the system to provide management facilities for the systems as a whole. The layer management provides information and control facilities for the protocol entities that exists in each individual layer. This includes operation and maintenance (OAM) functions for each layer. The control plane is responsible for the supervision of connections, including call setup, call release and maintenance. The user plane provides for the transfer of user information. It also includes mechanisms to perform error recovery, flow control etc. Related Protocols ISDN , ATM , B-ICI

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