ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

1. Introduction
2. Physical Domain
ATM
ATM 11 3. ATM Domain
4. OAM Management
5. Traffic Management

1. AAL, ATM Adaptation Layer

2. Signaling
ATM
ATM 22 3. AAL2 Switching
4. Summary
Outline, AAL, ATM Adaptation Layer
‹ AAL1
‹ AAL2
‹ AAL3,4
‹ AAL5
 Layered Architecture
‹ AAL ATM Adaptation Layer
‹ (Different AALs for different traffic types)
‹ PHY Physical Layer
‹ UNI User Network Interface

User-domain IP IP
AAL-domain AAL AAL
ATM-domain ATM ATM
Phy-domain PHY PHY
UNI AINI, BICI UNI
 AAL, ATM Adaptation Layers
‹ Provides mapping between application and ATM.
‹ Detects cell loss.
‹ Segments/reassembles into 48 octets ATM payload
‹ Following basic AALs are defined:
‹ AAL1, supports circuit emulation. E.g. Voice, E1, DS1
‹ AAL2, for compressed voice.
‹ E.g. cellular networks and PBX trunking.
‹ AAL3/4 (not wide spread usage - only used by SMDS)
‹ AAL5, general purpose, designed for transfer of data
packets.

SMDS: Switched Multi-mega bit Data Service

AAL1, for Circuit Emulation
‹ AAL1 header functions include:
‹ Time stamp for end to end clock synchronisation
‹ Protection
‹ Octet alignment

1 octet 47 octets
header payload

ATM-header ATM-payload
AAL1 Circuit Emulation Service
‹ What is a Circuit:
‹ Continuous stream at a constant rate
‹ Often delay sensitive real time stream

‹ Why emulate a Circuit

‹ A lot of legacy circuit switched network in place that
can be carried in an ATM based network,
e.g. The /// Engine concept
AAL1 for Voice,
simple 64 kbps circuit emulation
‹ 47 octets of G.711 voice samples
‹ 5.875 ms packetization delay
‹ based on network timing or adaptive clock
‹ sequence number control optional

G.711 ATM
ATM G.711
encoder Network
Network decoder

adaptive clock
5,875 ms
 Why AAL2 for compressed voice
‹ Compressed voice packets are smaller than an ATM cell
‹ The packets are of variable length
‹ The network delay must remain small

20 msec
Voice Packets
Poor
Utilisation...
ATM cells
60 msec
…or too Long Voice Packets
Delays
Solution - New AAL2 Protocol
‹ Gives high bandwidth efficiency and low delay

Voice 1 Voice 2 Data Silence

User Packets

AAL2 Packets

ATM cells
AAL2 Characteristics
‹ Multiplexing of voice, data and signaling
‹ High bandwidth efficiency with low delay.
‹ User packets of variable length
‹ Segmentation of long packets for wideband services
‹ Overlapping of ATM boundaries

‹ AAL2 is used to carry voice in:

‹ WCDMA access networks
‹ CDMA2000 access network
‹ Core networks
AAL2, segmentation of long data

Formats user packet 1 - 64k octets Functions

AAL-SEG.SAP
SEG-
SSCS Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment n Assured mode
45 octets 45 octets 1- 45 octets
AAL2 error protection/
detection
CPS
packet segmentation/
reassemble
ATM-SAP

More segments CPS Common Part Sublayer

SAP Service Access Point
Last segment SSCS Service Specific Convergence Sublayer
AAL2, CPS mux/demux
delineation

Formats user packet Functions

AAL-SAP
SSCS 8 255
CPS header payload
3 octets 1 - 45 octets assembly/ assembly/
AAL2 disassembly disassembly
CPS packet mux/demux
ATM payload delineation
ATM-SAP

ATM cell
CPS Common Part Sublayer SAP Service Access Point
Connection End Point SSCS Service Specific Convergence Sublayer
AAL2 CPS Packet Format
‹ CID: Channel Identifier
‹ 0 special case, used for decoupling
‹ 1,2 reserved for Layer Management and signaling
‹ 3-7 reserved for future use
‹ 8-255 used for connections
‹ LI: Length Indicator (1….45 octets)
‹ UUI: User-User Indication
‹ HEC: Header Error Control

CPS-Packet (maximum 48 octets

CID LI UUI HEC CPS-PP (1 … 45 octets)
8 6 5 5 CPS-Packet payload
AAL3/4
‹ AAL 3/4 is an adaptation there up to 1k connections
can be multiplexed into a single ATM connections.
‹ It was primary intended for data transfer but was
consider to complex
‹ AAL2 provides basically the same multiplexing
feature as AAL3/4
‹ AAL5 provides packet data transfer in a more efficient
way than AAL3/4
‹ AAL3/4 is therefore not used in practice.
AAL5, General Purpose
‹ Mainly used for data packets
‹ Provides segmentation/reassemble up to 64k octets
‹ Trailer provides protection and padding
‹ Segment indication in the ATM header PTI field
‹ The segment indication is also used for Traffic
Management in Early Packet Discard

Data, 1 - 64k octets

Trailer 8-55 octets

payload payload payload

more segments ATM-cell last segment

End of AAL
Outline, Signaling
‹ UNI, User to Network Interface
‹ B-ICI, BISDN Inter-Carrier Interface
‹ PNNI, Private Network to Network Interface
‹ AINI, ATM Inter Network Interface
Switched Virtual Connections, SVCs
‹ User VPI/VCI established via signaling
‹ SVCs must be reestablished if system failure
‹ Switch and terminal exchange signaling messages
using the signaling channel, VPI/VCI = 0/5
‹ Data may flow in one or both directions.
‹ Bandwidth can be set:
‹ Same in both directions (symmetric), or
‹ Different in each direction (asymmetric)
Signaling Channel Signaling Channel
(VPI/VCI = 0/5) (VPI/VCI = 0/5)
Call Processing
ES ES
User VPI/VCI User VPI/VCI
Permanent Virtual Connections, PVCs
‹ Often used for connections lasting for days or weeks
‹ VPI/VCI tables setup in terminals and switches
‹ Statically configured via Network Management
‹ A PVC is restored automatically at system restart

Network
Management
System

VPI/VCI VPI/VCI VPI/VCI

ES ES
Soft Permanent Virtual Connections
‹ A SoftPVC is a combination of SVC and PVC.
‹ Set up by the End User (ES) to the first switch
‹ The management system sets up the remaining part
‹ The End User reestablish if the connection is broken

Network Management System

Signaling Channel Signaling Channel

(VPI/VCI = 0/5) (VPI/VCI = 0/5)
VPI/VCI
ES ES
User VPI/VCI User VPI/VCI
Signaling Interfaces
‹ UNI, User to Network Interface, (Private or Public)
‹ B-ICI, BISDN Inter-Carrier Interface
‹ PNNI, Private Network to Network Interface
‹ AINI, ATM Inter Network Interface
‹ The interfaces defines how to to establish, maintain,
and clear virtual channel connections

Private PNNI
UNI
Private UNI Public B-ICI Public UNI
Network AINI network AINI network
 UNI, User to Network Interface

Private
UNI PNNI
Private UNI Public B-ICI Public UNI
Network AINI network AINI network
 UNI, User Network Interface, call setup

UNI B-ICI, AINI UNI

setup
setup
call proceeding setup
call proceeding

connect
connect connect ack.
connect
connect ack.
time
UNI, User Network Interface, clear call

UNI B-ICI, AINI UNI

release
e release
release complet release
e
release complet
OR
release
release release comple
te
release
release comple
te
Bandwidth Negotiation
UNI B-ICI, AINI UNI

Setup
(20 Mb/s) Setup
(15 Mb/s) Setup
(10 Mb/s)

Connect
Connect (10 Mb/s)
Connect (10 Mb/s)
(10 Mb/s)
 UNI, Signaling Protocol Stack
Information Elements, e.g.:
‹ Protocol discriminator
I.E 1 ‹ Called party (e.g. E.164 number)
I.E 2 ‹ Calling party
‹ Call reference
‹ Message type
Q.2931
I.E n ‹ Message length
SAAL ‹ AAL parameters
ATM SSCF ‹ QoS parameters
‹ Connection identifier
Physical SSCOP ‹ End-to-end transit delay
AAL5 ‹ OAM traffic descriptor
ATM Address Types
‹ ATM has adopted two basic types of addresses:
‹ ATM End System Addresses (AESAs)
‹ Based on ISO NSAP
‹ Come in multiple varieties, most notably
‹DCC (Data Country Code)
‹ICD (International Code Designator)
‹E.164 (E.164 address contained in AESA)
‹ E.164
‹ Same type of address used by telephony in ISUP and BISUP
‹ Often called “Native E.164” to distinguish from E.164 variety
of AESA
Native E.164 Addresses
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

North. 1 2 0 2 2 2 4 1 2 3 4
America Country Code = 1 (ITU Assigned)
NPA - Area Code = 202 (Washington D.C.)
NXX - Office Code = 224
Subscriber # = 1234

UK 4 4 1 7 1 2 5 0 6 2 2 3
Country Code = 44 (ITU Assigned)
City Code = 171 (London)
Local # = 250-6223

Sweden 4 6 0 8x x x y y y y
Country Code = 46 (ITU Assigned)
City Code = 08 (Stockholm)
Local # = 719-0000 (Ericsson Company)
Quality of Service Parameters

‹ End to end transit delay

‹ Acceptable CDV (Forwards, Backwards)
‹ Cumulative CDV (Forwards, Backwards)
‹ Cell Loss Ratio (Forwards, Backwards)
‹ QoS Classes may also be indicated for backwards
compatibility
AAL1 Parameters
‹ Voice-band based on 64 kbit/s
‹ Synchronous Circuit Emulation
‹ Asynchronous Circuit Emulation
‹ CBR rate: n x 64 kbit/s
‹ Clock recovery type
‹ Error correction type
‹ Structured Data Transfer
‹ Partially Filled Cells
‹ High-quality audio
‹ Video
AAL5 Parameters
‹ Forward Maximum CPCS-SDU Size
‹ Backward Maximum CPCS-SDU Size
‹ SSCS Type: Null, Assured SSCOP, Non-assured
SSCOP, or Frame relay SSCS
Bearer Capability
‹ Bearer: BCOB-A (CBR), BCOB-C (VBR), BCOB-X
‹ ATM Transfer Capability (ATC):
‹ CBR, with or without CLR commitment on CLP=0+1
‹ rt-VBR, with or without CLR commitment on CLP=0+1
‹ nrt-VBR, with or without CLR commitment on CLP=0+1
‹ UBR
‹ GFR
‹ ABR
‹ User plane connection configuration:
‹ Point-to-Point or Point-to-Multipoint
B-ICI, BISDN Inter-Carrier Interface

Private
UNI PNNI
Private UNI Public B-ICI Public UNI
Network AINI network AINI network
B-ICI, Network to Network Signaling
‹ Supports both PVC and SVC
‹ Capable of Supporting UNI Features
‹ Capable of Supporting Interworking with Narrowband
‹ Suitable for Public Network (e.g., Highly Reliable)
‹ Based on Broadband ISUP
B-ICI SVCs
‹ Signaling to Support SVCs (Switched Virtual
Connections) based on ITU-T BISDN Signaling
‹ Supports UNI specification
‹ Suitable for Use within a Public Network as well as
between Public Networks
‹ Includes the Following Capabilities
‹ Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint Connections
‹ Symmetric and Asymmetric Connections
‹ CBR and VBR Connections
‹ E.164 Addresses and ATM End System Addresses (Only
Transport for Non-E.164 AESAs)
B-ICI, Signaling Protocol Stack
‹Broadband ISDN User Part (BISUP)
‹ Derived from Narrowband SS7 ISUP
BISUP
‹Message Transfer Part Level 3
MTP Level 3 (MTP3)
‹ Subset of Narrowband MTP3
SAAL ‹Signaling AAL (SAAL) Consisting of
‹ Service Specific Convergence Function
ATM (SSCF)
‹ Service Specific Connection Originated Part
(SSCOP)
Physical
‹ Common Part, I.e.: AAL5
 PNNI,
Private Network To Network Interface

Private
UNI PNNI
Private UNI Public B-ICI Public UNI
Network AINI network AINI network
PNNI has two Key Components
‹ PNNI routing, based on OSPF but more advanced:
‹ Automatic topological discovery (No manual input required)
‹ State information for links is sent to all nodes in the network
‹ Levels of topology hierarchies that allows global networking
‹ Routing based on: capacity, link constraints, prop. Delay
‹ “Crankback” and Alternate Path rerouting around failed
components at connection setup
‹ Source routing
‹ PNNI signaling, based on extended Q2931 (UNI)
‹ Uses AESA (ATM End System Addresses scheme)
‹ No direct support of native E.164 numbers (as in B-ICI)
‹ Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connections
 PNNI Hierarchic Topology
‹ Within its group the peer group leader:
‹ aggregate topology information and send it upwards
‹ Advertise the topology information downwards
‹ This reduces the amount of flooding topology
information Peer
Peergroup
group
Level
Level33 Peer
Peergroup
groupleader
leader

A B C
Level
Level22

A.1 A.2 B.1 B.2 B.3 C

Level
Level11
PNNI, Advertised Topology Parameters
‹ Bandwidth
‹ l Maximum Cell Transfer Delay (maxCTD)
‹ l Peak-to-Peak Cell Delay Variation (CDV)
‹ l Cell Loss Ratio for CLP=0 traffic (CLR0)
‹ l Cell Loss Ratio for CLP=0+1 traffic (CLR0+1)
‹ l Available Cell Rate (ACR) (ABR only)

‹ The advertised parameters are service category

dependent e.g. : CBR, VBR, GFR, UBR and ABR
‹ The parameter list is not complete
 AINI,
ATM Inter Network Interface

Private
UNI PNNI
UNI
Private UNI Public B-ICI Public
Network AINI network AINI network
AINI, Why is it needed?
‹ Public UNI terminates and isolates PNNI network by not
supporting the PNNI routing protocol.
‹ B-ICI terminates and isolates PNNI network by not
supporting UNI signaling e.g.: AESA and QoS
parameters.
‹ Scaling to a global network due to:
‹ Addressing, Lack of a uniform, controlled, hierarchical address
space makes scaling difficult.
‹ Routing, A large, flat address space will increase routing tables
and routing protocol messages.
‹ A new interface called AINI is defined to solve this
AINI features
‹ A new interface that can be used between any two
networks
‹ The main purposes are:
‹ Public-Private (Public UNI replacement)
‹ Public-Public (if one or more non-BISUP)
‹ Private-Private (if no topology exchange)
‹ Based on PNNI signaling protocol (not the routing
protocol)
‹ Simplest version is basically a Public UNI equivalent
‹ May have optional routing functionality (PNNI routing
may be added)
End of Signaling
Outline, AAL2 Switching

‹ Why AAL2 switching?

‹ AAL2 switching concept
‹ AAL2 Traffic Management
‹ AAL2 signaling
Why AAL2 Switching?
‹ AAL2 was designed to support compressed voice for
the 3G access networks
‹ An anchor point for the call is allocated in the RNC
handling the Base Station picking up the mobile
‹ The anchor point handles the “soft handover” and is
fixed towards the Core Network.
‹ As the mobile roams a change of base station and its
RNC could happen.
‹ To support that in an efficient way AAL2 switched
connections are set up from the anchor point to the
base station in question across traversing RNCs
 Why AAL2 Switching, cont?

Core New AAL2

First AAL2 Network switched connection
Switched connection MGw

RNC RNC
AP

RBS RBS RBS RBS

Mobile roams

AP
AP Anchor
AnchorPoint
Point RBS
RBS Radio
RadioBase
BaseStation
Station
MGw
MGw Media
MediaGateway
Gateway RNC
RNC Radio
RadioNetwork
NetworkController
Controller
Layered Architecture
‹ UNI User Network Interface
‹ NNI Network - Network Interface
‹ N.B. The UNI, NNI and AINI basically represents
signaling schemes

User-domain voice voice

AAL2-domain AAL2 AAL2
ATM-domain ATM ATM
Phy-domain PHY PHY
UNI AINI, BICI UNI
AAL2 CPS Packet Format
‹ CID: Channel Identifier
‹ 0 special case, used for decoupling
‹ 1,2 reserved for Layer Management and signaling
‹ 3-7 reserved for future use
‹ 8-255 used for connections
‹ LI: Length Indicator (1….45 octets)
‹ UUI: User-User Indication
‹ HEC: Header Error Control
CPS-Packet (maximum 48 octets
CID LI UUI HEC CPS-PP (1 … 45 octets)
8 6 5 5 CPS-Packet payload
The AAL2 CID Concept
‹ Up to 248 connections, identified by the CID value,
can be set up per AAL2 Path
‹ An AAL2-Path is an ATM-VCC:
‹ An ATM-VCC is an SVC, SoftPVC or PVC
‹ The AAL2-Paths act as a cross connect network for
AAL2 connections.
AAL2-Path
AAL2-CID

Virtual Path
Physical Link
AAL Switching Concept
‹ The switch looks at the CID field
‹ The CID is local for each Virtual Channel

CID 8
VCC CID 8
CID 9 CID 9
VCC
CID 10
CID 8 CID 11
VCC
CID 9
AAL2 Switching in Practice
‹ The maximum AAL2 packet (48 octets) is designed to
entirely fit into an ATM-cell.
‹ The reason is that it should be easy to switch AAL2
packets by putting the entirely packet in the payload
of an ATM-cell.
‹ In CPP the incoming VCI plus the CID is combined to
an internal ATM-VCI.
‹ At the output the combined VCI is translated to the
outgoing VCI and CID.
AAL2 Traffic Management
‹ Traffic Parameters for Peak CPS rate and Sustained
CPS rate is exchanged during set up (Q.2630.3)
‹ To enforce the traffic contract a token bucket police
function can be used. (not implemented yet)
‹ To maintain the traffic contract a simple shaping could
be used:

AAL2
AAL2Traffic
TrafficManagement,
Management,shaping
shaping high priority FIFO
for compressed voice

low priority FIFO for data

AAL2 Signaling, Q.2630.3
‹ Provides capability to establish, release AAL type 2
connections across a series of ATM-VCCs
‹ Provides maintenance functions associated with the
AAL type 2 signaling to block, unblock and reset
AAL2 channels and paths.
‹ Provides parameters for type of service, peak and
sustained CPS bit rate that allows for priorities,
policing and shaping
‹ The protocol uses MTP3b on top of SAAL or
corresponding functions in AAL2-SSCS
‹ E.164 addressing is used for addressing
End of AAL2switching
Outline, ATM Summary
‹ ATM versus Circuit Switching
‹ ATM versus Ethernet
‹ ATM versus IP
‹ Conclusions
ATM versus Circuit Switching
‹ Circuit Switched Disadvantages::
‹ The bandwidth is always consumed regardless if it is
utilized or not due to static resource allocation
e.g.: for voice only 50% of the bandwidth is used
‹ No efficient support for variable rate services, such as
mobile voice traffic (compressed voice) and Internet
125 usec 125 usec
Frame Synch Frame n Frame n+1
Time slots 0-m Time slots 0-m

Connection A 64 kbps Connection B 2x64 kbps

ATM versus Circuit Switching
‹ ATM advantages:
‹ For 64 Kbps voice a 50% bandwidth gain can be made due
to silence removal.
‹ For compressed voice a 75% gain can be made compared
to 16 Kbps static STM transfer as in GSM.
‹ For data a 80-90% gain can be made especially
considering its unbalanced and burst character
ATM-cell
5 48
Header Payload

Connection A
Connection B
ATM versus Ethernet
‹ Ethernet advantages:
‹ Simplicity
‹ Wide deployment
‹ Cost-effectiveness (due to large volumes in the PC-market)
‹ Acceptance as an Enterprise and Metro solution.
‹ Ethernet disadvantages:
‹ No 99.999% service availability
‹ No real QoS and differentiation of services
‹ 60 Octets packets minimum giving poor utilization for small
packets e.g. voice traffic.
‹ A flat 48 octets address and packet length from 60 to 1500
Octets makes Ethernet more difficult to switch.
ATM versus Ethernet, continued
‹ ATM disadvantages:
‹ The fixed length ATM cell gives a minimum 10%
overhead (so called “cell-tax)
‹ For long packets Ethernet has less overhead
‹ E.g. 1500 Octets packets is 5% overhead compared 10 –
15% for ATM-AAL5
ATM versus IP
‹ Through mass adoption of the Internet, IP has
dramatically changed the world with an open, easy-to-
use global interface to desktop applications,
‹ ATM has become a layer 2 technology to IP
‹ Most IP/Data carriers maintain an ATM layer to
convey connectionless IP traffic due to the inherent
features of ATM such as:
‹ scalability
‹ traffic engineering
‹ service differentiation
‹ high availability
ATM/AAL2 in 3G Networks
‹ ATM/AAL2 provides a good Quality of Service and
excellent statistical gain for compressed voice.
‹ This is very important in access networks with heavy
investments low speed trunks, i.e.: DS1 and E1
‹ ATM combined with AAL2 therefore plays an
important role in the 3G access networks to utilize the
low speed trunks to its maximum
‹ ERICSSON has an upper edge in AAL2 technology
Conclusions
‹ IP is increasingly important at Layer 3
‹ ATM has QoS, switching, etc. that
provide good Layer 2 support to IP
‹ Gbit Ethernet may replace ATM inside nodes as
switching technology due to its market acceptance
‹ ATM/AAL2 is important for the 3G access networks

No
No technology
technology lives
lives forever
forever but
but for
for the
the
coming
coming 55 to to 10
10 years
years ATM/AAL2
ATM/AAL2 willwill most
most
likely
likely remain
remain asas aa viable
viable technology
technology
 ATM World Wide Market
(Mobile systems not included)
Million USD $7977
$7977
$7071
$7071
$6082
$6082
$5077
$5077
$4107
$4107
$3214
$3214

Year
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Source: Vertical Systems Group
End of ATM Summary