Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is the cell relay protocol adopted by the ITU-T.

In fact, ATM can be thought of as the "highway" of the information. Combination of SONET and ATM allow highspeed interconnection of worlds network.

Want to be
Higher data rate or bandwidth Must interface with existing system for

wide area connectivity without lowering the effectiveness Implemented Inexpensively Connection Oriented (accuracy)

Frame Networks (variable size) Mixed Network traffic (variable size influence multiplexer) Cell Networks (basic unit of data exchange) Asynchronous TDM (multiplex cells coming from different channels)

ATM is a cell-switched network. The user access devices, called the endpoints, are connected through a user-to-network interface (UNI) to the switches inside the network. The switches are connected through network-to-network interfaces (NNIs).

ATM transfers information in fixed-size units called cells. Each cell consists of 53 octets, or bytes. The first 5 bytes contain cell-header information and other 48 contain the payload (user information).

ATM Switches: An ATM switch is responsible for

cell transit through an ATM network from source to destination.

ATM Endpoints: An ATM endpoint (user system)

Connection between two endpoints is accomplished through transmission paths (TPs), virtual paths (VPs), and virtual circuits (VCs). A transmission path (TP) Physical connection (wire) between an endpoint and a switch or between two switches. Set of all highways connecting two cities (Switch).

A virtual path (VP) provides a connection between two switches. Highway between two cities. Cell networks are based on virtual circuits (VCs). All cells belonging to a single message follow the same virtual circuit and remain in their original order until they reach their destination. Think of virtual circuit as lanes of highway

Practical relationship of VP and VC.

The designers of ATM created a hierarchical identifier with two levels: a virtual path identifier (VPI) For specific VP and a virtual-circuit identifier (VCI) For particular VC in side the VP.
Define the identifiers in pairs as one is VPI and other is VCI.

For UNI and NNI we use identifiers of different length as shown in figure.

ATM uses switches to route the cell from a source endpoint to the destination endpoint. A switch routes the cell using both the VPIs and the VCIs.

ATM consist upon three basic layer format as Physical Layer ATM Layer AAL (ATM Application Adapter Layer)

Physical layerAnalogous to the physical layer of the OSI reference model, the ATM physical layer manages the medium-dependent transmission.

ATM layerrouting, traffic management, switching and multiplexing It process outgoing traffic by accepting 48 byte segments from AAL layer and add 5 byte header

ATM adaptation layer (AAL)Combined with the ATM layer, the AAL is roughly analogous to the data link layer of the OSI model. The AAL is responsible for
The adaptation layer prepares user data for conversion into cells and segments the data into 48-byte cell payloads.

Generic Flow Control (GFC) Payload Type (PT) Cell Loss Priority (CLP) Header Error Control (HEC)

AAL has four subparts as

AAL1 AAL2

AAL3/4
AAL5

AAL1, a connection-oriented service, is suitable for handling constant bit rate sources (CBR), such as voice and videoconferencing.

AAL2, connection oriented service, Originally designed Traffic type tends to be bursty in nature. This is called variable bit rate (VBR) traffic. Now used for low bit rate traffic and short frame traffic such as audio. E.g. mobile telephony.

AAL3/4 supports both connection-oriented and connectionless data. Provide extensive sequencing and error control mechanisms

AAL5 is the primary AAL for data and supports both connection-oriented and connectionless data. AAL5 also is known as the simple and efficient adaptation layer (SEAL) AAL3/4 sequencing and error control is not required by all applications.

Assumes all cells belongs to single message travel sequentially and controls functions are included in upper layer of sending application.

ATM supports voice, video and data allowing multimedia and mixed services over a single network. High evolution potential, works with existing technologies Provides the best multiple service support Able to use all common physical transmission paths like SONET. Ability to connect LAN to WAN High speed Mbps and possibly Gbps