PRACTICAL 01

Switching Techniques in ATM

A packet switching technology that allows voice, data, image, and video traffic to be combined into evenly sized cells for high-speed transmission over one access circuit is known as ATM Switching. This means that all the information sent over an ATM network is broken down into discrete packets. Each 53 byte cell contains 48 bytes of payload and 5 bytes of control information.

An ATM Cell

Because the cells are all the same size, cell delay at ATM switches is more predictable and manageable. The aim of ATM switch design is to increase speed, capacity and overall performance. ATM switching differs from conventional switching because of the high-speed interfaces (50 Mbps to 2.4 Gbps) to the switch, with switching rates up to 80 Gbps in the backplane. ATM was designed specifically to handle broadband applications efficiently and at the same time let users give certain types of traffic priority treatment on the network. ATM networks are linked together by a series of ATM switches that take in cells from various sources and switch them out again.

Five ATM Switching Techniques:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Shared Memory Switch. Shared Bus Switch. Crossbar Switch. Multistage Switching. Banyan/Delta Switching.

1.Shared Memory Switch: The Shared Memory Switch is a technique that uses a common memory for the storage of cells and switching fabric. Incoming cells are multiplexed onto a single line to the switch and are placed in queues. Then, based on cell headers information and internal tags, the switching function decides the order in which cells are move from the input queues to the output queues and ultimately onto the output ports.

2.Shared Bus Switch: The Shared Bus Switch approach utilizes a bus or dual bus architecture to switch cell traffic. Cell traffic is carried through the bus for transmission. With this technique, frame based traffic can also be supported since the busses operates in cell mode. Therefore, the traffic is diced into 48-octet pieces with 5-byte header attached for transmission onto the bus. It is easy to see that frame based traffic can be converted to ATM cells and vice versa with this approach.

3.Crossbar Switch: The Crossbar Switch is a simple matrix-like space division technique that physically interconnects any of the N inputs to any of the N outputs at cross-points. Therefore, a crossbar switching fabric consists of N2 cross-points. It is easy to see that this approach will be difficult to implement for large switches.

4.Multistage Switching: The Multistage Switching uses a similar concept to the crossbar switch technique. However, it is designed with a more tree-like structure to reduce the N squared cross-points requirement yielding a more economical arrangement. Basically, the inputs and output lines are divided into subgroups of N inputs and N outputs.

5.Banyan/Delta Switching: A Banyan switch is a complex crossover switch used in electrical or optical switches. It is named for its resemblance to the roots of the banyan tree which cross over in complex patterns. Typical crossover matrices follow this formula: an NN banyan switch uses (N/2) log2 N elements.