ATM

(Asynchronous
transfer mode)
 Asynchronous transfer mode
(ATM)
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is, "a
telecommunications concept standards for carriage of a
complete range of user traffic, including voice, data, and
video signals"
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a
packet based switching and multiplexing technology
 Continue..
• In ATM, the information is packed into fixed-size packets
(cells) of relatively short length. Each cell has a length of
53 bytes (octets) of which 48 can be used for user
information. These cells are identified and switched
throughout the network by means of a label in the header
• ATM is a streamlined protocol with minimal error and flow
control capabilities.
 ATM Devices

An ATM network is made up of an ATM switch and ATM

endpoints. An ATM switch is responsible for cell transit
through an ATM network. The job of an ATM switch is well
defined: It accepts the incoming cell from an ATM endpoint
or another ATM switch. It then reads and updates the cell
header information and quickly switches the cell to an
output interface toward its destination. An ATM endpoint
(or end system) contains an ATM network interface adapter.
Examples of ATM endpoints are workstations, routers,
digital service units (DSUs), LAN switches, and video coder-
decoders (CODECs).
ATM Architecture
 ATM Logical Connections
• The logical connection between two end nodes is called a
virtual channel connection (VCC).
• VCC is set up between two end users, a user and a
network (for control signaling), or network to network (for
network management and routing).
• A bundle of VCCs that have the same end point is a called
virtual path connection (VPC). All the cells flowing over all
of the VCCs in a single VPC are switched together .
Advantages of using virtual path
Using the virtual path has the following advantages:
• Once a virtual path is established, establishing new virtual channel
connections is easy. Capacity can be reserved in anticipation of later
call arrivals. No call processing is required at intermediate switches,
so adding virtual channels involves minimal processing. Hence, the
processing is reduced and connection setup time is much less.
• The switching is very fast and, as a result, network performance and
reliability will increase.
• The network architecture will be simplified.
 ATM Cells

• ATM uses fixed-size cells, consisting of a 5-octet header

and a 48-octet information field.
• There are several advantages to the use of small, fixed-
size cells.
 First, the use of small cells may reduce queuing delay for a high-
priority cell,
 Second, it appears that fixed-size cells can be switched more
efficiently, which is important for the very high data rates of ATM.
 The structure of an ATM cell

• ATM defines two different cell formats:

1. UNI (User-Network Interface)
2. NNI (Network-Network Interface).
• Most ATM links use UNI cell format.
Diagram of the UNI ATM Cell Diagram of the NNI ATM Cell

7
GFC
4 3
VPI Cell format 0 7
VPI
4 3 0

VPI VCI VPI VCI

VCI VCI
VCI PT CLP VCI PT CLP
HEC HEC

Payload and padding if necessary (48 bytes) 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
 Generic Flow Control(GFC)

• The Generic Flow Control (GFC) field is a 4-bit field that

was originally added to support the connection of ATM
networks to shared access networks such as a Distributed
Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) ring. The GFC field was designed
to give the User-Network Interface (UNI) 4 bits in which
to negotiate multiplexing and flow control among the cells
of various ATM connections. However, the use and exact
values of the GFC field have not been standardized, and
the field is always set to 0000.
 Virtual Path Identifier (VPI)
• The Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) defines the virtual path
for this particular cell. VPIs for a particular virtual
channel connection are discovered during the connection
setup process for switched virtual connection (SVC)
connections and manually configured for permanent
virtual connection (PVC) connections. At the UNI, the VPI
length of 8 bits allows up to 256 virtual paths. VPI 0 exists
by default on all ATM equipment and is used for
administrative purposes such as signaling to create and
delete dynamic ATM connections.
 Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI)
• The Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) defines the virtual channel within
the specified virtual path for this particular cell. Just as with VPIs,
VCIs are also discovered during the connection setup process for
switched virtual connection (SVC) connections and manually
configured for permanent virtual connection (PVC) connections. The
VCI length of 16 bits allows up to 65,536 virtual channels for each
virtual path. VCIs from 0 to 15 are reserved by the International
Telecommunication Union ITU and VCIs from16 to 32 are reserved by
the ATM Forum for each virtual path. These reserved VCIs are used
for signaling, operation and maintenance, and resource management.
 Continue..
• The combination of VPI and VCI values identifies the
virtual channel for a specified ATM cell. The VPI/VCI
combination provides the ATM forwarding information
that the ATM switch uses to forward the cell to its
destination.
 Payload Type Indicator
The Payload Type (PT) field indicates the type of information in the information field.
The Payload Type Indicator is a 3-bit field. Its bits are used as follows:
• The first bit indicates the type of ATM cell that follows. A first bit set to 0 indicates user data; a
bit set to 1 indicates operations, administration and management (OA&M) data.
• The second bit indicates whether the cell experienced congestion in its journey from source to
destination. This bit is also called the Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI) bit. The
second bit is set to 0 by the source. If an interim switch experiences congestion while routing
the cell, it sets the bit to 1. After it is set to 1, all other switches in the path leave this bit value
at 1.
• Destination ATM endpoints can use the EFCI bit to implement flow control mechanisms to
throttle back on the transmission rate until cells with an EFCI bit set to 0 are received.
• The third bit indicates the last cell in a block for AAL5 in user ATM cells. For non-user ATM
cells, the third bit is used for OA&M(operation administration and management) functions.
 Cell Loss Priority

• The Cell Loss Priority (CLP) field is a 1-bit field used as a priority
indicator. When it is set to 0, the cell is high priority and interim switches
must make every effort to forward the cell successfully. When the CLP bit
is set to 1, the interim switches sometimes discard the cell in congestion
situations. The CLP bit is very similar to the Discard Eligibility bit in
Frame Relay.
• An ATM endpoint sets the CLP bit to 1 when a cell is created to indicate a
lower priority cell. The ATM switch can set the CLP to 1 if the cell
exceeds the negotiated parameters of the virtual channel connection. This
is similar to bursting above the Committed Information Rate in Frame
Relay.
 Header Error Control

• The Header Error Control (HEC) field is an 8-bit field that

allows an ATM switch or ATM endpoint to correct a single-
bit error or to detect multi-bit errors in the first 4 bytes of
the ATM header. Multi-bit error cells are silently
discarded. The HEC only checks the ATM header and not
the ATM payload. Checking the payload for errors is the
responsibility of upper layer protocols.
 ATM Service Categories
• From book pdf page 73
 Thank You
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