2. Asynchronous Transfer Mode
• ATM is the cell relay protocol designed by
ATM Forum and adopted by ITU-T.
• The combination of ATM & B-ISDN will allow
high-speed interconnection of all the world’s
networks.
• In fact, ATM can be thought of as the
“highway” of the information superhighway.
• ATM operates at a speed of 155 & 622 Mbps &
is a connection oriented network
3. Design Goals
• Need for a transmission system to optimize the use of high-
data-rate transmission media, in particular optical fiber.
• A system that can interface with the existing systems, such
as various packet networks, & to provide wide area
interconnectivity between them without lowering their
effectiveness or requiring their replacement.
• design that can be implemented inexpensively
• able to work with & support the existing telecommunications
hierarchies
• must be connection oriented to ensure accurate &
predictable delivery.
• to move as many of the functions to hardware as possible
and eliminate as many software functions as possible
4. Packet Networks
• Data communications today are based on
packet switching & packet networks. A
packet is a combination of data & overhead
bits that can be passed through the
network as a self contained unit. The
overhead bits, in the form of a header &
trailer, act as an envelope that provides
identification & addressing information as
well as the data required for routing, flow
control, error control, …
5. ATM LANs
Issues to be resolved
• Connectionless Vs Connection-oriented
• Physical Addresses Vs Virtual
Connection Identifier
• Multicasting & Broadcasting delivery
• varying size & intricacy
• To improve utilization
6. Cell Networks
• Many of the packet internetworking problems are solved
by adopting a concept called cell networking.
• A cell is a small data unit of fixed size. In a cell network,
all data are loaded into identical cells that can be
transmitted with complete predictability & uniformity.
• As packets of different sizes & formats reach the cell
network from a tributory network, they are split into
multiple small data units of equal length & loaded into
cells.
• Because of the same size, the problems associated with
multiplexing different sized packets are avoided.
7. Advantages of Cells
• High speed of the link coupled with the
small size of the cells
• A cell network can handle real time data
• To a cell network, the smallest unit is a
cell, not a bit.
• Switching & multiplexing can be
implemented in hardware rather than
software
8. Asynchronous TDM
• ATM uses asynchronous TDM (that’s why
called as ATM) to multiplex cells coming from
different channels. It uses fixed size slots.
• ATM mux fill a slot with a cell from any input
channel that has a cell, the slot is empty if none
of the channels has a cell to send.
• At the first tick of the clock, the multiplexer fills
the slot with a cell from each channel. When all
the cells from all the channels are multiplexed.
The output slots are empty.
9. ATM Switching:
Contentionless Time Division
• Advantages
• Non-blocking
• Deterministic performance—probability of cell loss = 0
• Flexible port speeds
– (DS-1, E-1, DS-3, E-3, 100M, 155M, 622M)
• Hardware multicast without increasing fabric cell traffic
• Low transit delays
• Disadvantages
• Limited scalability on single TDM fabric
– Use time-space-time to expand
10. ATM Architecture
ATM is a cell
switched network.
The user access
devices, called the
end points, are
connected through a
user-to-network
interface (UNI) to the
switches inside the
network.
The switches are
connected through
network-to-network
interfaces.