Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) (1)

• The word Asynchronous in ATM is in contrast to Synchronous

Transfer Mode (STM) that was proposed earlier on, which was based
on the SONET/SDH hierarchy.

• Transfer Mode refers to a telecommunication technique for

transferring information.

• The ATM architecture is based on the packet-switching principle and

is connection oriented:
In order for a sender to transmit data to a receiver, a connection has
to be established first. The connection is established during the call
setup phase, and when the transfer of data is completed, it is torn
down.

• The fundamental unit of transport in ATM is of fixed size (called

cell) which enables switch designers to build faster, simpler devices
because they can always count on their switched payload being the
same size at all times.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) (2)

• ATM was standardized by ITU-T (old CCITT) in

1987 as the transfer mode of B-ISDN
• Designed to carry a variety of different types of
traffic, such as
– Voice
– Video
– Data
At speeds varying from fractional T1 (part of 1.544
Mbps) to 2.4 Gbps
 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) (3)
• These different types of traffic have different Quality-of-Service
(QoS) requirements, such as:
– Packet loss
– End-to-end delay

• ATM, unlike IP networks, can provide each traffic connection a

different type of quality of service.
• Until the advent of multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) architecture
in the late 1990s, ATM was the only networking technology that
provided QoS on a per connection basis.
 Applications of ATM
ATM is a mature technology that is primarily used:

A)in the backbone of Internet service providers (ISPs)

B) in cellular telephony to carry multiple voice connections using the

ATM adaptation layer 2 (AAL 2).

C) For circuit emulation, which is a service that emulates a point-to-

point T1/E1 circuit over an ATM network.

D) in access networks such as ADSL-based residential access

networks

Since ATM is not visible to the users, as is, the TCP/IP protocol. it is
often mistaken as a network that it is no longer in use – which is
absolutely not the case!
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (1)
An important debate in the definition of the ATM concept was the
choice of fixed or variable length packets.

Factors that contribute to the advantages and disadvantages of both

solutions are:
1) transmission bandwidth efficiency,
2) the delay
3) the achievable switching performance (i.e. switching speed versus
complexity).
Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (2)
Transmission bandwidth efficiency
In a packet switching system, overhead appears due to header. The
transmission efficiency is given by
Number of inf ormation bytes
n=
Number of inf ormation bytes + number of overhead bytes
a) Fixed length packets X
n =
In that case, this efficiency is given by: F X
(L + H )
L
where: L = information size (in bytes), H = Header size (in bytes), X = Number of
useful information bytes to transmit
z represents the smallest int eger l arg er than or equal to z

The efficiency is optimal for all information units which are multiples of the
packet information size: X
L = X
L
L
In the optimal case the efficiency becomes: nFOPT =
L+ H
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (2a)
Example
Assume that the packet has L = 48 bytes and H= 5bytes.
Let X = 48, 65, 82, 96 bytes (number of useful information bytes to
transmit). Find efficiency.
Answer:
X 48
nF = = = 0.90566
X (48 + 5)
(L + H ) Conclusion:
L
X 65 65
The efficiency is optimal
nF = = = = 0.613207 for all information units
X 65 2*(48 + 5)
(L + H ) (48 + 5)
L 48 which are multiples of the
X 82 82 packet information size
nF = = = = 0.773585
X 82 2*(48 + 5)
(L + H ) (48 + 5)
L 48 X
L= X
nF =
X
=
96
=
96
= 0.90566
L
X 96 2*(48 + 5)
(L + H ) (48 + 5)
L 48
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (3)
In the fig. below this efficiency is given for L = 48, H = 5. In the same diagram
we see that nF has a sawtooth shape. The efficiency depends on the useful
info bytes X to be transmitted. If X is large (multiple value of L=48 in this
example), the optimal efficiency is approached. If X is small, this efficiency is
rather low.
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (4)
(b) Variable length packets
If the packets have a variable length, then the overhead is determined by the
header, and the flags to delimit the packets plus in addition some stuffing bits
to ensure proper flag recognition. It is also appropriate to add to the header a
length indicator, determining the length of the packet. So the overhead
becomes
X
nV =
X + H + hv
where hv is the specific packet header overhead determined by its variable
length character (flags, length indicator).
Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (5)

H = 5 bytes,
hv = 2 bytes

The transmission efficiency

of variable length packets
can be very high (close to
100 %) for very long
packets.
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (6)
c) Conclusion
With respect to transmission efficiency, we see that the efficiency of
variable length packets is better than that of fixed length packets. However,
when we look at the specific case of a broadband network this gain of
transmission efficiency is rather limited since the main traffic contributing
broadband services consist of a combination of voice, video, and bulk data
transfer. This ensures, that we have very long information fields that can be
cut into fixed packets, completely filled.

Delay
The size of ATM packets has to be rather limited in order not to introduce
large delays in the network, thereby causing problems for real time
services. An important problem is the delay for voice if the packet size is
too large. Therefore, if the ATM packets have to be variable length, their
length may only fluctuate in a limited range.
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (7)
Switching speed and complexity
The complexity of implementing fixed or variable length packet switching
depends mainly on: a) the speed of operation and b) the queue memory size
requirements of an ATM switching system

(a) Speed of operation

This speed depends on the functions to be performed and the available time to
perform them.
Header processing
One important function in ATM switching systems is the header processing.
Assume that the header functions are identical in both the fixed and variable
length case. In the case of fixed length packets, the available time to perform
all functions is fixed (e.g. 2.8 µs in the 48 + 5 byte solution at 150 Mbit/s).
With variable length packets, the available time depends on the worst case (i.e.
the smallest packet), so the speed requirements are much higher (e.g. to
perform the same functions for a 5 + 5 byte packet at 150 Mbit/s only 533 ns
are available).
 Variable versus fixed length packets in ATM (8)
(b) Queue memory size requirements
The memory requirements of a system based on fixed length packets
depend on the load and the acceptable packet loss rate. The queue
dimensioning has to be done in a number of packets. In bytes this
means that the larger the packet, the larger the memory requirements
are.
In case variable length packets have to be supported by the queuing
system, the queue dimensioning is much more complicated and
depends on the mix of packet lengths.

Conclusion
For both the speed of operation and the queue memory size
requirements the fixed length solution is preferable.
 Size of the ATM cell (1)
Once it was decided to use fixed length packets the next concern was
the length of the cell. Several aspects are influenced by the cell
length. The most important are:
• Transmission efficiency
• Delay (packetization delay, queuing delay and related
depacketization delay)
• Implementation complexity

(a) Transmission efficiency

This efficiency is determined by the ratio between the header size and
the information field size. If all packets are completely filled then the
efficiency is:
L
nH =
L+H
The longer the information field, the higher the efficiency for the
same header size.
 Size of the ATM cell (2)
Types of delay that are impacted by the cell size
Packetization delay (PD): It is introduced every time a real time service (e.g.
voice and video) is converted into packets (packetized). In a pure ATM
network, packetization is required only at the source. If we have a network
where ATM systems and non-systems coexist this packetization is required at
every boundary between both types of networks.

Switching delay: It is composed of a fixed part, called the fixed switching

delay (FD) and a variable part determined by the queues in the exchanges,
called the queueing delay (QD).

FD: It depends on the implementation of the switch and it is caused by the

internal packet transfer through the hardware (typical values ~10µs). It is the
delay encountered in the switch if only a single packet passes through the
switch.
QD: Since ATM systems multiplex and switch ATM packets, queues are
necessary in the network to avoid an excessive loss of packets. These queues
introduce delay which varies with the load of the network.
 Size of the ATM cell (3)
Types of Delay (2)

TD: This delay depends on the distance between endpoints and the
transmission medium used (typical values 2-5 µs).
 Size of the ATM cell (4)
b) The packetization delay for constant bit rate services increases with the
size of information field size as shown in the fig. There we show the
packetization delay for 32 kbit/s (D32) and 64 kbit/s (D64) voice coding.
These curves are only valid if the cells are completely filled. The increase in
packetization delay may have an important impact on the overall network
performance. This results in larger problems with respect to the time
transparency of the network, potentially requiring echo cancellers for voice.
Size of the ATM cell (5)
QD is influenced by
the ratio between L
and H. The graph is
based on a 150 Mbps
switching node.
If L increases, the
serving time in the
queues also increases,
thereby increasing the
queueing delay.
If L decreases, so that
the service time
devoted to a relatively
large header increases,
the percentage of time
devoted to serving of
the useful data
decreases thereby
increasing queueing
delay.
 Size of the ATM cell (6)
c) Implementation complexity in terms of memory and speed:
• The larger the cell size, the larger the queues in bits will be. E.g. doubling the cell
size will also double the memory requirements.
• On the other hand, the header should be processed for every cell. This processing
must be performed in the time a single cell has to be processed. So, the longer the cell
size, the larger the available time and the lower the speed requirements of the system.

In this graph
the system
operates at
150Mbps and
the queue is
dimensioned
for 50 cells
(the header is 4
bytes).
 Some features of ATM
• Connection-oriented packet-switched network
Header Payload
• Fixed cell (packet) size of 48+5 bytes
5 bytes 48 bytes

• No error protection on a link-by-link (since the links have a very low

bit-error rate). The payload is not protected against transmission
errors. The header is protected in order to guard against forwarding a
packet to the wrong destination!
The recovery of a lost packet or a packet that is delivered to its
destination with erroneous payload is left to higher protocol layers.
• No flow control on a link-by-link (thus congestion control schemes
are required, to permit the operator to carry as much traffic as possible
without losing too many cells)
• Delivers cells in the order in which they were transmitted
• The content of the header changes as the cell “travels” in the network
The only The structure of the ATM cell
difference
between the UNI cell format NNI cell format
2 formats 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

GFC VPI VPI

2 2
VPI VCI VPI VCI
header 3
VCI
3
VCI header
b 4
VCI PTI CLP b 4 VCI PTI CLP
y
5
y 5
t HEC HEC
t
e
e
s
s
.
Information Information
.
. payload . payload
. .
53 53

UNI is concerned with the interface The NNI is used between two
between an ATM end device and the ATM ATM switches belonging to the
switch to which it is attached. same network or to two different
An ATM end device is any device that can networks.
be attached directly to an ATM network
and that can transmit/ receive ATM cells.
 Fields in the ATM cell header (1)
UNI cell format

• Generic Flow Control (GFC) 1

1 2

GFC
3 4 5 6

VPI
7 8

2
• Connection identifier: VPI/VCI, 3
VPI VCI
VCI
• Payload type indicator (PTI) b
y
4 VCI PTI CLP
t 5 HEC
• Cell loss priority (CLP) e
s .

• Head error control (HEC) .

.
Information
payload
53
 Fields in the ATM cell header (2)
UNI cell format

• Generic Flow Control (GFC) 1

1 2

GFC
3 4 5 6

VPI
7 8

2
VPI VCI
The GFC field allows the multiplexer to 3 VCI
control the rate of an ATM end device. b
y 4 VCI PTI CLP
Generally, this field is not used. t
e 5 HEC
s

. Information
.
.
payload

53
 Fields in the ATM cell header (3)
UNI cell format NNI cell format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 1
GFC VPI VPI
2 b 2
b VPI VCI y VPI VCI
y t
t 3 VCI e
3 VCI
e s
s 4 VCI PTI CLP 4 VCI PTI CLP
5 HEC 5 HEC
• Connection identifier: CI = {VPI, VCI}
An ATM connection is identified by the combined virtual path identifier (VPI) and
virtual channel identifier (VCI). Such a connection is named virtual channel connection
(VCC).

A VC is a unidirectional conduit for the transmission of cells between two endpoints.

E.g. if two parties are conducting a videoconference, they will each have a VC for the
transmission of outgoing cells that make up the video portion of the conference.

A VP is a bundle of VCs that have the same endpoints.

 Fields in the ATM cell header (4)
UNI cell format NNI cell format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 1
GFC VPI VPI
2 b 2
b VPI VCI y VPI VCI
y t
t 3 VCI e
3 VCI
e s
s 4 VCI PTI CLP 4 VCI PTI CLP
5 HEC 5 HEC

The VPI/VCI field is 24 bits in the UNI interface and 28 bits in the NNI
interface. The VPI field is 8 bits in the UNI interface and 12 bits in the NNI
interface.

Therefore, in a UNI interface, there can be a max of 28 = 256 virtual paths,

and in an NNI interface a max. of 212 = 4096 virtual paths.

In each interface, there can be a max. of 216 = 65,536 VCIs. A VPI takes any
value from 0 to 255. VCI values are assigned as follows: 0 to 15 are reserved by
ITU-T, 16 to 31 by the ATM Forum, and 32 to 65,535 are used for user VCCs.
 Fields in the ATM cell header (5)
• Payload type indicator (PTI): UNI cell format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
This field has three bits. It indicates eight different 1
GFC VPI
types of payloads, such as user data and OAM. 2
VPI VCI
The 2nd bit is also called explicit congestion 3 VCI
control notification (EFCN) bit in the ABR service b
y 4 VCI PTI CLP
and shows if the cell experienced congestion while t
HEC
“traveling” from source to destination. The 3rd bit e
s
5

is used to show if this cell is the last in a series of

cells that make an ATM adaptation layer 5 user .
.
Information
payload
frame. If it is the last, this bit is set to 1. .

53
PTI Meaning
• 000 User data cell, congestion not experienced, (Service Data Unit) SDU type=0
• 001 User data cell, congestion not experienced, SDU type=1
• 010 User data cell, congestion experienced, SDU type=0
• 011 User data cell, congestion experienced, SDU type=1
• 100 Segment OAM flow-related cell
• 101 End-to-end OAM flow-related cell
• 110 Resource Management (RM) cell (used in ABR)
• 111 Reserved
 Fields in the ATM cell header (6)
UNI cell format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
•Cell loss priority (CLP) 1
GFC VPI
It is used to indicate whether a cell can be 2
VCI
VPI
discarded when congestion arises inside the 3 VCI
network. b
y 4 VCI PTI CLP
t
e 5 HEC
If a cell’s CLP bit is set to one, then the s

cell can be discarded. . Information

If the cell’s CLP bit is set to 0, then the cell .
.
payload
cannot not be discarded. 53
 Fields in the ATM cell header (7)
UNI cell format
•Head error control (HEC) 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

GFC VPI
•It consists of 8 bits and protects the 4 octets of 2
VPI VCI
header only – not the payload. b
3 VCI
•It is used to correct single-bit and to detect y 4 VCI PTI CLP
t
multiple bit transmission errors in the header. e 5 HEC
s

. Information
.
.
payload
Multiple bit error detected
(cell discarded)
53

Correction Detection Error detected

mode No error detected mode (cell discard)
No error detected (no action)
(No action)

Single bit error detected

(correction)
 Label Swapping

A virtual channel connection between two users consists of a

path through a number of different ATM switches. For each
point-to-point link that lies on this path, the connection is
identified by a different VPI/VCI, i.e. VPI/VCI values have
local significance. That is, a VPI/VCI is only valid for a
single hop and is translated to a different VPI/VCI at each
switch that the cell traverses.

This operation is referred to as label swapping since the

connection identifier is also known as a label, a term adapted
later on in MPLS.
 An example on Label Swapping
C VPI=30
VCI=41
VPI=40 1
VPI=30 VPI=100
VCI=62 ATM 4 VCI=53 4
ATM VCI=53
A D
2 switch 1 switch 2 5

3 VPI=10
30 41 1 30 53 4 VCI=89 30 53 4 100 53 5
40 62 2 10 89 3
1
ATM
switch 3
VPI=50
10 89 1 50 77 6
6
VCI=77
B

The path from A to B consists of the following three different labels:

VPI/VCI = 40/62, VPI/VCI = 10/89, and VPI/VCI = 50/77.

The input and output ports of each switch, through which the
connection is established, can also be identified: the connection enters
ATM switch 1 at input port 2, then exits from the same switch from
output port 3, then enters ATM switch 3 at input port 1, and finally
exits from output port 6.
 PVCs, SVCs and soft PVCs

• Depending on how an ATM connection is set-up, it can

be
– Permanent virtual circuit (PVC)
– Switched Virtual circuit (SVC)
• PVCs are set-up administratively and in advance. They
remain up for a long time.

• SVCs are set-up in real-time (when required) using ATM

signalling (Q.2931). Their duration is arbitrary.

• Soft PVC: Part of this connection is permanent and part of

it is switched. The connection is set up using both network
management procedures and signaling procedures.
The ATM protocol stack (for data transport) (1)
Upper layers can be e.g.
IP, Frame Relay.

• The ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) is subdivided into two sublayers: the
convergence sublayer, which allows the different types of traffic such as data
and video to converge into ATM; and a segmentation and reassembly
sublayer, which breaks down larger blocks of data into ATM cells and
reassembles them at the far end of the connection.

•The ATM Layer has five general responsibilities. They are

1) Cell multiplexing and demultiplexing, 2) Virtual path and virtual-channel
switching, 3) Creation of the cell header, 4) Generic flow control, 5) Cell
delineation
The ATM protocol stack (for data transport) (2)

The Physical Layer consists of two functional sublayers as well: the

Transmission Convergence (TC) Sublayer and the Physical Medium
Dependent (PMD) Sublayer.

The TC sublayer deals with the physical handling of cells. It establishes and
maintains the boundaries of the ATM cells in the bit stream; generates and
verifies header checksums; inserts and removes “idle” ATM cells when cells
are not available for transmission; converts cells into a format appropriate for
transmission in the specific physical medium

The PMD sublayer is concerned with details of the transmission of bits over
the medium, such line coding, timing recovery, pulse shape etc.
 More on the physical layer
The transmission convergence (TC) sublayer (1)
HEC cell generation and verification
The ATM layer passes to the physical layer ATM cells for transmission
over the link. Each ATM cell is complete, except for the HEC byte. This
byte is computed and inserted into the HEC field in the TC sublayer.

At the receiving side of the link, the HEC state machine is implemented in
the TC sublayer. TC will drop any cell whose header was found to be in
error.
• HEC cell generation
and verification
• Decoupling of cell rate
• Transmission frame
TC
generation and recovery
• Cell delineation
•Timing function PMD
•Encodind/Decoding
 More on the physical layer
The transmission convergence (TC) sublayer (2)
Decoupling of cell rate
The PMD sublayer expects to receive a continuous stream of bits. During
the time that ATM cells are not passed down from the ATM layer, TC
inserts idle cells in-between the cells received from the ATM layer so that
to maintain the continuous bit stream expected from PMD. These idle cells
are discarded at the receiver’s TC sublayer.
They are identified uniquely; their header is marked as: VPI = 0, VCI = 0,
PTI = 0, and CLP = 0.
• HEC cell generation
and verification
• Decoupling of cell rate
• Transmission frame
TC
generation and recovery
• Cell delineation
•Timing function PMD
•Encodind/Decoding
 More on the physical layer
The transmission convergence (TC) sublayer (3)
Transmission frame generation and recovery
In frame-oriented transmission systems (such as SONET/SDH), TC
generates frames at the sender’s side by placing frame-related
information and ATM cells into a well-defined frame structure. At the
receiver’s side, it recovers the frames and subsequently the ATM cells
from the bit stream.

• HEC cell generation

and verification
• Decoupling of cell rate
• Transmission frame
TC
generation and recovery
• Cell delineation
•Timing function PMD
•Encodind/Decoding
 More on the physical layer
The transmission convergence (TC) sublayer (4)
Cell delineation (extraction of cells from the bit stream)
Incorrect
The PMD sublayer processes the data as HEC for α cells
hunt Sync
a continuous stream of bits. The TC sublayer
when accepting the received bit stream is Incorrect
responsible for identifying the cell boundaries HEC
Correct Correct
in the bit stream. HEC HEC for δ cells
The identification/recovery of cell
Presync
boundaries is performed by a cell
delineation algorithm.
In the HUNT state, the algorithm is performed bit by bit to determine if a match exists
between received HEC and calculated HEC. If a match is achieved, then one header
has been found and the algorithm enters the PRESYNC state. In this state, it checks the
HEC of δ consecutive cells. If a mismatch is found , then the state machine goes back to
the hunt state. Otherwise, synchronization with the bit stream is achieved, and the state
machine moves to the SYNC state. In the SYNC state, the HEC is used for error
detection and correction. Note that cell delineation is assumed to be lost if α
consecutive mismatches occur. In this case, the state machine shifts to the hunt state.
ITU-T recommends that δ = 6 and α = 7.
 More on the physical layer
The Physical Medium dependent (PMD) sublayer
– Timing function
• Used to synchronize the transmitting and receiving PMD sublayers. It generates
timing for transmitted signals and derives correct timing for received signals.
– Encoding/decoding
• PMD may operate on a bit-by-bit basis or using block coding such as 4B/5B and
8B/10B schemes (e.g. in the 4B/5B encoding scheme, each group of 4 bits is coded by
a 5-bit code). Block coding requires more bandwidth than it effectively provides.
There are several benefits with block coding, such as bit boundary detection and
exchange of control info. In addition, enhanced speed in the execution of the protocol
is achieved, since it operates in chunks of bits.
• HEC cell generation
and verification
• Decoupling of cell rate
• Transmission frame
TC
generation and recovery
• Cell delineation
•Timing function PMD
•Encodind/Decoding
 ATM physical layer interfaces

• SONET/SDH
• Plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH)
• Nx64 Kbps
• Inverse multiplexing for ATM (IMA)
• asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)
• APON
 Features of the ATM layer (1)
Connection-oriented packet switching
• The ATM layer is a connection-oriented point-to point packet-switched
network with fixed-size packets (cells). Unlike the IP network, an
ATM end device cannot transmit cells to a destination ATM end device
over an ATM network unless a virtual channel connection is
established first.
• A connection is identified by a series of VPI/VCI labels, as already
explained, and it may be point-to-point or point-to-multipoint.
• Cells are delivered to the destination in the order in which they were
transmitted.
 Features of the ATM layer (2)
Cell switching in ATM networks
is carried out at the ATM level
Application Application

End-device ATM switch ATM switch End-device

Both end devices run the complete ATM stack: the physical layer, the
ATM layer, the AAL, and the application layer.

The ATM switches only need the physical layer and the ATM layer in
order to switch cells.
 Features of the ATM layer (3)
No error and flow control on each hop
(between adjacent switches)
• Low probability of a cell getting lost or delivered to the destination
end-device in error.
Typically, the probability that a bit will be received wrongly is less than
10−8. So, if we assume that bit errors occur independently of each other,
then the probability that the payload of an ATM cell (which consists of 48
bytes or 384 bits) will not contain errors is (1 − 10−8)384. Therefore, the
probability that it contains one or more erroneous bits is 1 - (1 − 10−8)384,
which is very low.
• The recovery of the data carried by lost or corrupted cells is expected
to be carried out by a higher-level protocol, such as TCP.
• When TCP/IP runs over ATM, the loss or corruption of the payload of
a single cell results in the retransmission of an entire TCP PDU.
 Features of the ATM layer (4)
Quality of service (1)
• Each ATM connection is associated with a QoS category.
Six different categories are provided by the ATM layer: constant bit rate (CBR),
real-time variable bit rate (RT-VBR), non-real-time variable bit rate (NRT
VBR), available bit rate (ABR), unspecified bit rate (UBR), and guaranteed
frame rate (GFR).
1) CBR is for real-time applications that transmit at a constant rate (voice)
2) RT-VBR is for real-time applications that transmit at a variable rate, such as
encoded video and voice.
3) NRT-VBR is for delay-sensitive applications that transmit at a variable rate
but that do not have real-time constraints (e.g. Frame Relay over ATM).
4) UBR is for delay-tolerant applications, such as those running on top of
TCP/IP.
5) ABR is for applications that can vary their transmission rate according
to how much slack capacity there is in the network.
6) GFR is intended to support non-real-time applications that might require a
minimum guaranteed rate.
 Features of the ATM layer (5)
Quality of service (2)
•Each QoS category is associated with a set of traffic
parameters and a set of quality-of-service parameters.

The traffic parameters are used to characterize the traffic

transmitted over a connection, and the QoS parameters are
used to specify the cell loss rate and the end to-end delay
required by a connection.

• The ATM network guarantees the negotiated QoS for each

connection.
 Features of the ATM layer (6)
Congestion control
• It permits the network operator to carry as much traffic as
possible without affecting the QoS requested by the users.

Congestion control can be either preventive or reactive.

In preventive congestion control, network congestion can
be prevented by using a call admission control (CAC)
algorithm. CAC decides whether or not to accept a new
connection; if accepted, then CAC polices the amount of
data that is transmitted on that connection.
In reactive congestion control, network congestion is
managed by regulating how much the end devices transmit
through feedback messages.
 The ATM adaptation layer
• AAL is a service dependent layer and adapts the various higher level
protocols to the service-independent ATM layer.
• AAL converts the traffic generated by a higher-level layer to ATM
payloads and provides different types of services to the higher-level layer.

• AAL consists of the

– convergence sublayer, and the
– segmentation-and-reassembly sublayer.
 The AAL sublayers
SAP

Service Specific
Convergence Convergence Sublayer (SSCS)
Sublayer Common Part
Sublayer (CPS)

Segmentation and Reassembly

SAP
The convergence sublayer provides service-specific functions. It is further
subdivided into the service-specific convergence sublayer (SSCS) and the
common part sublayer (CPS).

SAR, on the other hand, has two functions depending on where the ATM cell
is currently located: at the transmitting side or at the receiving side. At the
transmitting side, SAR segments higher-level layer PDUs into a suitable size
for the information field of an ATM cell. At the receiving side, it reassembles
the information fields of ATM cells into higher-level layer PDUs.
 Interaction between CS and SAR sublayers

The CS process adds a Header (H) and Trailer (T) to the user information
(CS-SDU) to produce the CS-PDU. The CS-PDU becomes the SAR-SDU
and one or multiple SAR-SDUs are segmented into 48 bytes to become the
SAR-PDU. This SAR-PDU is what makes up the ATM cell payload.
 ATM adaptation layers
Four ATM Adaptation Layers have been standardized:
ATM adaptation layer 1 (AAL 1) for Constant Bit Rate traffic
ATM adaptation layer 2 (AAL 2) for Variable Bit Rate traffic
ATM adaptation layer 3/4 (AAL 3/4), for bursty traffic and
ATM adaptation layer 5 (AAL 5) for IP traffic

Of these, all are currently used except for AAL 3/4.

An additional ATM adaptation layer, the signaling ATM adaptation

layer (SAAL), supports the ATM signaling protocols.
 AAL 1 cell format (after CS and SAR sublayers)

AAL1 is used for adapting CBR traffic such as uncompressed video or

PDH traffic. The CBR stream of traffic is segmented into 47 bytes (in
the CS sublayer) and a 1-byte header is added (in the SAR sublayer) as
shown above.

All AAL1 cell headers contain a 3-bit sequence number (SN) and a
short (4-bit) cyclic redundancy check called a sequence number
protection (SNP) which checks the sequence number for errors.

This 47 + 1 block is called the SAR-PDU. The SAR-PDU is then

passed on to the ATM layer, where it gets encapsulated with a 5-byte
ATM header. The ATM cell is then passed on to the physical layer,
which transmits it out.
 AAL 1 – Circuit Emulation Service (CES) An example
Transport the 2G traffic over the ATM connection that is being used to carry
the 3G traffic to the RNC, via the 3G base station (cost effective solution).

To achieve this, the TDM circuit switched traffic of the GSM network, carried on
E1/T1, is sent to the UMTS base station where it is carried over AAL1 using
the CES. At the RNC/2G BSC, some device, such as an ATM cross-connect, is
used to separate the different traffic streams, and then the circuit emulation
process is reversed, with the original E1/T1 stream being retrieved from AAL1
and forwarded to the 2G BSC.
ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL 2) (1)
• Defined for real time VBR traffic (or CBR traffic e.g.
compressed voice traffic)
• AAL 2 is primarily used in cellular telephony.
• AAL 2 is used to interconnect two distant public or private
telephone networks over an ATM network.
• The AAL 2 services are provided by the convergence sublayer,
which is subdivided into the
– Service Specific Convergence Sublayer (SSCS)
– Common part sublayer (CPS).
• There is no SAR layer in AAL 2.
 ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL 2) (2)
An example
The AAL2 adaptation layer is used to transport user traffic between the
circuit switched core and RANs.
 The SSCS and CPS sublayers (1)
AAL 2 packets from different AAL 2 connections are multiplexed into a single
ATM cell of the underlying AAL 2 path as illustrated below.
 The SSCS and CPS sublayers (2)
The 3-Byte SSCS and 1-byte CPS headers are illustrated below.

• Channel Identity (CID) identifies the user (e.g. user 1 or 2 in the figure) within the
AAL2 cell, and allows up to 248 individual users within each AAL2 structure (theoretical
maximum is 256 users but some CID values are reserved for management functions).
• Length Indicator (LI) identifies the length of the packet payload (it can be less than
45 bytes, as shown above) associated with each individual user.
• User to User (UUI) Used to negotiate a larger Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) size for
IP.
• Header Error Control (HEC) is a checksum used to protect the header.
 The SSCS and CPS sublayers (3)

The 1-Byte CPS header contains the following fields:

• Offset Field (OSF) identifies the location of the start of the packet within the flow.

• Sequence Number (SN) For integrity protection of the data.

• Parity bit for error protection of the header.

 ATM adaptation layer 5 (AAL 5)
• Very popular AAL due to its simplicity
• It is used for data traffic (non real time VBR)
• It differs from AAL1 and 2 in that overheads are added to
a frame before it is segmented and the resulting cells
contain a full 48-byte payload.
• AAL 5 consists of
– Convergence sublayer (CS)
• SSCS
• CPS
– Segmentation and reassembly (SAR).
 ATM adaptation layer 5 (AAL 5)
The Convergence Sub-layer (CS) adds 8 bytes of trailer to the user data and a PAD
field between 0 and 47 bytes to complete the PDU so that it can be divided to a number
of 48-byte segments for loading into the ATM cells. The Segmentation and Reassembly
Sub-layer (SAR) does not add header or trailer fields, it simply segments the data as
illustrated below.
 Questions – Problems (1a)
What are the main differences between ATM and Frame Relay?

• ATM uses a 53 byte fixed length cell while the frame in frame
relay is much longer, and may vary in length, both in its header and
its data fields.
• In ATM, error checking is only done on the header. In Frame
Relay, error chacking is done on the whole frame.
•Virtual channels of ATM that follow the same route through the
network are bundled into paths. Such a mechanism does not exist
in Frame Relay.
Questions – Problems (1b)
 Questions – Problems (2)
What are the main differences between ATM and IP?
 Questions – Problems (3)
What is the difference between a VC and a VP? What are the
advantages of using VPs?

1) A VC is a logical connection similar to virtual circuit in X.25 or a

logical channel in Frame Relay. In ATM, virtual channels which
have the same endpoints can be grouped into VPs.
2) Simplified network architecture: Network transport functions
can be separated into those related to an individual VC and those
related to a group of VCs (VP).
Increased network performance and reliability: The network
deals with fewer, aggregated entities.
Reduced processing and short connection setup time: Much of
the work is done when the VP is set up. By reserving capacity on
a VP connection in anticipation of later call arrivals, new VC
connections can be established by executing simple control
functions at the endpoints of the VP connection.
 Questions – Problems (4)
Why is there error control for the header and not for the payload of an
ATM cell?

Answer:
There is no error control between two adjacent ATM nodes. It is not
necessary because the links in the ATM network have a very low error
rate. In view of this, the payload of the packet is not protected against
transmission errors. However, the header is protected in order to guard
against forwarding a packet to the wrong destination. The recovery of a
lost packet or a packet that is delivered to its destination with erroneous
payload is left to the higher protocol layers.
 Questions – Problems (5)
How long does it take to transmit an ATM cell over :
a) a T1 line?, b) an OC-3?, c) an OC-12?, d) an OC-24?, e) an OC-48?
a) T1 line:
424
= 274 .6 µ s
1 .544 * 10 ^ 6

b) OC-3:
424
= 2.73 µ s
155 .52 * 10 ^ 6

c) OC-12:
424
= 0.6816 µ s
622 .08 * 10 ^ 6

d) OC-24:
424
= 0.34 µ s
1.244 * 10 ^ 9

e) OC-48:
424
= 0.176 µ s
2 .488 * 10 ^ 9
 Questions – Problems (6)
Suppose that bit errors occur at random and that the bit error rate is p. Find the
probability that the header contains no errors, a single error, a double error;
more that two errors. Evaluate these probabilities for p=10−3, 10−6, and 10−9.
 Questions – Problems (7)
Consider the transmission of a video ATM cell through five switches. The
data rate is 43 Mbps.
a) What is the transmission time for that cell through one switch?
b) Suppose that when our video ATM cell arrives in a switch, the switch
maybe busy transmitting a data ATM cell. In that case, our video cell
should wait until the other cell completes transmission. If the switch is
free our cell is transmitted immediately. What is the maximum time from
when our video cell arrives at the first switch (and possibly waits) until it
is finished being transmitted by the fifth switch?

Solution
a. The transmission time for that cell is t = (53 * 8)/(43* 106) = 9.86µs.
b. The maximum time from when our video cell arrives at the first switch
(and possibly waits) until it is finished being transmitted by the 5th and last
one is 2 * 5 * 9.86µs = 98.6µs.
 Questions – Problems (8)
An ATM node is connected to 100 channels and has a throughput of 100.000.000
cells/s. The 100 channels have the following traffic parameters: 40% of them have a
constant cell rate of 1.000.000 cells/s; 30% of them have a variable cell rate with a
minimum cell rate of 300.000 cells/s and a maximum of 600.000 cells/s; 20% of them
have a variable minimum cell rate of 1.000.000 cells/s and a maximum of 1.300.000
cells/s; and 10% of the channels are not active. A new customer requests all bandwidth
available. Calculate the best and worst case bandwidth that can be given to the new
customer if the node should operate up to 85% capacity.

Solution:
The following bandwidh utilization table is constructed:
40 x 1 M cells/s = 40 M cells/s
30 x 300 K cells/s = 9 M cells/s min
30 x 600 K cells/s = 18 M cells/s max
20 x 1 M cells/s = 20 M cells/s min
20 x 1.3 M cells/s = 26 M cells/s max
Total: 69 M cells/s min.value and 84 M cells/s max. value
Thus, the new customer can be granded a VBR service between 1 M cells/s and 16
M cells/s. This is because the node should not operate above 100*0.85 = 85 M
cells/s .
 Questions – Problems (9)
Suppose an ATM switch has 32 input ports and 32 output ports.
Theoretically, how many connections can the ATM switch support?
 Questions – Problems (10)
Suppose that an ATM connection carries voice over AAL1. Suppose that
the packetization delay is to be kept below 10ms.
a) Calculate the percentage of overhead if the voice is PCM encoded.
b) Calculate the percentage of overhead if the voice is encoded using a
12 kbps speech encoding scheme from cellular telephony.

Solution
a) In AAL1 47 bytes are needed to fill the payload. PCM encodes at 64 kbps.
Thus, the time to fill the payload is:
((47bytes)(8bits/byte))/64kbps = 5.88 ms which means that the cell is
packetized in less than 10 ms.

The overhead is therefore (5+1)/53 = 0.1132

b) ((47bytes)(8bits/byte))/12kbps = 31.33 ms which is greater than the 10 ms.

So we should calculate how many bytes are encoded in 10 ms.
The answer is: ((12Kbps)/(8bits/byte))*10ms = 15 bytes
Thus, the overhead is: (5+1 + (47-15))/53 = 38/53 = 0.717
 Questions – Problems (11)
Find the overhead of AAL5 for a Packet Data Unit of 65535 bytes.

We add 8 bytes as trailer and so we have 65535 + 8 = 65543 bytes

We divide this value by 48 bytes and we have: 65543/48 = 1365.479 cells or 1365
cells (of 48 bytes) and 1 extra cell whose 0.479*48 bytes are actual data and the
rest (1-0.479)*48 bytes are Pad. So the overhead is: 8 + (1365 + 1)*5 bytes
(these are the ATM header bytes) + (1-0.479)*48 = 6838 + 25 = 6863 bytes
which is the overhead needed to carry the PDU of 65535 bytes
 Questions – Problems (12)
How many low-bit rate calls can be supported by AAL2 in a single
ATM connection?

Solution:
The CID in the SSCS header is 8 bits, so the max. theoretical value of calls
that can be supported by AAL2 in a single connection is 28=256 calls.
 Questions – Problems (13a)
Estimate the bit rate of the connection if an AAL2 carries the maximum
number of calls carrying voice at 12kbps and the packetization delay is 10ms.

Since the
packetization
Voice Voice delay is 10 ms
User 1 ... User 256
the packet size is
n= 12000 bits/s
*10 ms = 120
...
bits
As we see in the graph, for each packet a header of 3 bytes is added.
The max. number of calls is 28=256 and the packet size for each call is n +
3*8 bits. The total number of bits is thus: 256(n + 3*8) .
Considering that there is an overhead of 6 bytes (1 byte the CPS Header and 5
bytes the ATM header) for each cell , the packets are transmitted in
256(n + 24)
cells
47 * 8
 Questions – Problems (13b)
Thus, the total bit rate is:
⎡12000 bits / s ⎤ ⎡ 256(n + 24) ⎤
⎢ n bits ⎥ ⎢ 47 * 8 cells ⎥[53 * 8 bits / cell ] =
⎣ ⎦⎣ ⎦
⎛ n + 24 ⎞
= 3.46417 *10 ⎜ 6
⎟ bits / s
⎝ n ⎠

E.g., a packetization delay of 10 ms gives n = 120 bits. In this case,

the bit rate is 4.157 Mbps.