ATM Layer

ATM Layer
Multiplexing and Demultiplexing. Cell switching is done. Traffic management and connection admission control. Resource availability.

ATM cell header structure at UNI

 Transmission of bits takes place in decreasing bit order and increasing byte order. Cell header values reserved by physical layer (VCI=VPI=0 and first bit of 4th byte set to 1)
** P bits available for physical layer

Atm cell header at UNI

Physical layer OAM cells are used for mgmt purposes and are identified by fourth bit of fourth byte which is set to 1. 8th bit of the first byte is transmitted first and 1st bit of fifty-third byte is transmitted last.

GFC (Generic Flow Control) Field

4-bit field Used for flow control between end-system and ATM Network 2 modes used for GFC based flow control :
Uncontrolled access (no GFC procedures are used so GFC field is set to all zeroes ) Controlled access (GFC mechanisms can be used for the cells sent by a controlled terminal on a controlled connection)

VPI and VCI Fields

VPI Virtual Path Identifier VCI Virtual Channel Identifier At UNI, VPI 8 bit & VCI 16 bit Used to relay/switch cells Some values are used for n/w management purposes, some for specific ATM layer functionality ( these reserved values are called pre-assigned values)

PT (Payload Type) Field

3-bit field Identifies the type of payload in the cell First 4 entries in below table user data cell (Most significant bit as 0, 2nd MSB indicate whether congestion is experienced or not)

CLP (Cell Loss Priority) Field

1-bit field Used to assign 2-level priority to a cell. CLP 0 higher priority compared to CLP=1 At the time of congestion, cells with CLP=1 are subject to discard prior to cells with CLP=0. Cells generated by Physical layer CLP=1 Unassigned cell generated at ATM layer CLP=0 Intermediate node can decrease the priority of cell from 0 to 1 in case of congestion etc. but cannot increase the priority from 1 to 0.

ATM cell header structure at NNI

 VPI 12 bits No GFC field because if the amount of data injected into the n/w is controlled, then within the n/w there should be no need to enforce such primitive flow control Reason of adding resulting 4 bits to VPI it allow connections from more than one UNI to be merged on to a single NNI and still allow each of the connections to be uniquely identified.

Multiplexing of several UNI Connections at NNI

ATM Layer Functions

Cell construction
ATM layer receives 48 byte payload from upper layers It append 5-byte header to this, fill necessary values and send to PL
VCI/VPI determined using the pre-connection info. stored in transition table at ATM layer CLP specified by user (default = 0) PTI determined by the higher layers HEC filled at Physical layer

Cell multiplexing and Demultiplexing

Allocation of bandwidth depends upon the connection parameters fixed at the time of connection establishment

cell relaying and Forwarding using VPI/VCI

Mapping between incoming and outgoing VCI/VPI values is maintained within an ATM switch

 Interpretation of pre-assigned cell header Values

ATM layer differentiates between user cell and cell having various reserved values.

Support for Multiple QoS classes-QoS required by application is dependent on time of connection establishment -mapping with connection identifiers to QoS parameters.

Usage Parameter Control

Amount of cells injected in n/w must remain below a threshold value. ATM layer may drop excess cells or change CLP bit from 0 to 1

Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI)

Informs users about the impending congestion Enables end-users to slow down the rate at which they are injecting cells.