1. 3.3 Cell Switching (ATM) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
connection-oriented packet-switched network
used in both WAN and LAN settings
Q.2931: signaling (connection setup) protocol
discover a suitable route across an ATM network
allocate resources at the switches along the circuit (to ensure the circuit a particular quality of service)

2. Cells
packets are called cells (fixed length)
53-byte cell = 5-byte header + 48-byte payload
commonly transmitted over SONET
other physical layers possible

3. Variable vs. fixed-length packets
no optimal packet length
if small: high header-to-data overhead
if large: low utilization for small messages
variable-length packets
lower bound
minimum amount of information that needs to be contained in the packet
typically a header with no optional extensions

4. upper bound (set by a variety of factors)
the maximum FDDI packet size, for example, determines how long each station is allowed to transmit without passing on the token, and thus determines how long a station might have to wait for the token to reach it

5. fixed-length packets packet vs. cell
it is easier to build hardware to do simple jobs, and the job of processing packets is simpler when you already know how long each one will be
if all packets are the same length, then each switching element takes the same time to do its job
packet vs. cell
most packet-switching technologies use variable-length packets
cells are fixed in length and small in size

6. Big vs. Small Packets Small improves queue behavior
cell: finer control over the behavior of queues
examples
cell
cell length = 53 bytes
link speed = 100Mbps
the longest wait ≈ 53 × 8/100 = 4.24μs [exactly 4.04μs] for ATM

7. variable-length packets
maximum packet length = 4KB
link speed = 100Mbps
transmission time ≈ 4096 × 8/100 = μs [exactly 312.5μs]
a high priority packet that arrives just after the switch starts to transmit a 4KB packet will have to sit in the queue μs waiting for access to the link

8. cell: shorter queue length than that of packets
when a packet begins to arrive in an empty queue, the switch have to wait for the whole packet to arrive before it can start transmitting the packs on an outgoing link
it means that the link sits idle while the packet arrives
if you imagine a large packet being replaced by a “train” of small cells, then as soon as the first cell in the train has entered the queue, the switch can transmit it

9. variable-length packets
example
variable-length packets
if two 4-KB packets arrived in a queue at about the same time
the link would sit idle for μs while these two packets arrive
at the end of that period we would have 8KB in the queue

10. shorter queues mean less delay for all the traffic
Cell
if those same two packets were sent as trains of cells, then transmission of the cells could start 4.24μs after the first train started to arrive
at the end of μs, the link would have been active for a little over 323μs (≈ μs – 4.24μs)
there would be just over 4 KB of data left in the queue, not 8KB as before
shorter queues mean less delay for all the traffic

11. Small improves latency (for voice)
voice digitally encoded at 64Kbps (8-bit samples at 8KHz)
need full cell’s worth of voice samples before transmitting a cell
a sampling rate of 8KHz means that 1 byte is sampled every 125μs (= (1/8000) * 103), so the time it takes to fill an n-byte cell with samples is n × 125μs
a 1000-byte cells implies 125ms to collect a full cell of samples before you even start to transmit it to the receiver

12. Cell Format Two different cell formats
User-Network Interface (UNI) format
host-to-switch format
interface between a telephone company and one of its customers
Network-Network Interface (NNI) format
switch-to-switch format
interface between a pair of telephone companies

13. ATM cell format at the UNI

14. User-Network Interface (UNI)
GFC (4 bits): Generic Flow Control(not wildly used)
Provide a means to arbitrate access to the link if the local site used some shared medium to connect to ATM
VPI (8 bits): Virtual Path Identifier
VCI (16 bits): Virtual Circuit Identifier
For now, we can think of them as a single 24-bite identifier that is used to identify a virtual conncection
Type (3 bits): management, user data
CLP (1 bit): Cell Loss Priority
A user or network element may set this bit to indicate cells that should be dropped preferentially in the event of overload

15. User-Network Interface (UNI)….
HEC (8 bits): Header Error Check (CRC-8)
Protecting the cell header is particularly important because an error in the VCI will cause the cell to be misdelivered
Network-Network Interface (NNI)
GFC becomes part of VPI field (no GFC and becomes 12-bit VPI)

16. ATM Headers

17. Architecture of an ATM network

18. Segmentation and Reassembly
Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR)
in ATM, the packets handed down from above are often larger than 48 bytes, and thus, will not fit in the payload of an ATM cell
solution
fragment the high-level message into low-level packets at the source
transmit the individual low-level packets over the network
reassemble the fragments back together at the destination

19. Segmentation is not unique to ATM
But it is much more of a problem than in a network with a maximum packet size of, say, 1,500 bytes
To address the issue, ATM Adaptation Layer was added

20. ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)
a protocol layer sits between ATM and the variable-length packet protocols that might use ATM, such as IP
the AAL header simply contains the information needed by the destination to reassemble the individual cells back into the origins message

21. Segmentation and reassembly in ATM
■ ■ ■
AAL
ATM
Segmentation and reassembly in ATM

22. Because ATM was designed to support all sorts of services, including voice, video, and data, it was felt that different services would have different AAL needs

23. ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL)
AAL1 and 2 designed for applications that need guaranteed bit rate (e.g., voice, video)
AAL 3/4 designed for packet data
AAL3 used by connection-oriented packet services (such as X25)
AAL4 used by connectionless services (such as IP)
AAL5 is an alternative standard for packet data
AAL3 and AAL4 are merged into one known as AAL ¾, so there are now four AALs

24. ATM Layers

25. ATM Layers in Endpoint Devices and Switches

26. AAL 3/4
AAL3/4
provide enough information to allow variable-length packets to be transported across ATM network as a series of fixed-length cells
AAL supports the segmentation and reassembly process
the task of segmentation / reassembly involves two different packet formats
Convergence Sublayer Protocol Data Unit (CS-PDU) [AAL3/4 packet format]
ATM cell format for AAL3/4

27. Convergence Sublayer Protocol Data Unit (CS-PDU)
CPI
Btag
BASize
Pad
Etag
Len 8 16 ─ 24
< 64 KB
User data
Convergence Sublayer Protocol Data Unit (CS-PDU)
PDU (Protocol Data Unit), a new name for packet
CS-PDU defines a way of encapsulating variable-length PDUs prior to segmenting them into cells
the PDU passed down to the AAL layer is encapsulated by adding a header and a trailer [CS-PDU header and a trailer], and the resultant CS-PDU is segmented into ATM cells

28. Encapsulation and segmentation
PDU
AAL 3/4 packet (CS-PDU)
ATM cell
encapsulate
(header & trailer)
segment
Encapsulation and segmentation

29. CS-PDU format CPI (8 bits): Common Part Indicator (version field)
Btag
BASize
Pad
Etag
Len 8 16 ─ 24
< 64 KB
User data
CS-PDU format
CPI (8 bits): Common Part Indicator (version field)
Only the value 0 is currently defined
Btag/Etag (8 bits): Beginning and Ending tag
BASize (Buffer Allocation) (8 bits): a hint to the reassembly process as to how much buffer space to allocate for the reassembly
Pad: make sure the data is one byte less than a multiple of 4 bytes
0-filled byte ensures the trailer is 32 bite
Len (16 bits): length of the PDU

30. ATM Adaptation Layer 3/4 packet format
CPI
Btag
BASize
Pad
Etag
Len 8 16 ─ 24
< 64 KB
User data
ATM Adaptation Layer 3/4 packet format

31. In addition to CS-PDU header and trailer, AAL 3/4 specifies a AAL 3/4 header and trailer [AAL 3/4 header and trailer]
The CS-PDU is segmented into 44-byte chunks, an AAL 3/4 header and trailer is attracted to each one, bringing it up to 48 bytes, which is then carried as the payload of an ATM cell

32. ATM Cell Format (AAL3/4) Type (2 bits) SEQ (4 bits) MID (10 bits)
sequence number
detect cell loss or misordering
MID (10 bits)
multiplexing identifier
multiplex several PDUs onto a single connection
Payload (352 bits;44 bytes)
the segmented CS-PDU chunk
AAL3/4 Type field

33. Length (6 bits) CRC-10 number of bytes of PDU contained in this cell
it must be 44 for BOM and COM cells
CRC-10
error detection anywhere in the 48-byte cell payload

34. ATM cell format for AAL3/4
5 bytes
2 bytes
44 bytes
2 bytes
ATM header
AAL 3/4 header
44-byte chunk
AAL 3/4 trailer
5 bytes
48 bytes
ATM header
Payload
ATM cell format for AAL3/4

35. Encapsulation and segmentation for AAL3/4
the user data is encapsulated with the CS-PDU header and trailer
the CS-PDU is then segmented into 44-bye payloads, which are encapsulated as ATM cells by adding the AAL3/4 header and trailer as well as the 5-byte ATM header
the last cell is only partially filled whenever the CS-PDU is not an exact multiple of 44 bytes

36. Encapsulation and segmentation for AAL3/4

37. With 44 bytes of data to 9 bytes of header, the best possible bandwidth utilization would be 83%

38. AAL5
PDU
AAL 5 packet (CS-PDU)
ATM cell
encapsulate
segment

39. CS-PDU Format Data portion trailer (8-byte) Pad (up to 47 bytes)
CRC-32
< 64 KB ─
47 bytes 16
Reserved
Pad
Len 32
Data
CS-PDU Format
Data portion
trailer (8-byte)
2-byte Reserved + 2-byte Len + 4-byte CRC-32
Pad (up to 47 bytes)
so trailer always falls at end of ATM cell
Length
size of PDU (data only)
CRC-32 (detects missing or misordered cells)

40. ATM Adaptation Layer 5 packet format
CRC-32
< 64 KB ─
47 bytes 16
Reserved
Pad
Len 32
Data
ATM Adaptation Layer 5 packet format

41. Encapsulation and segmentation for AAL5
user data is encapsulated to form a CS-PDU
the resulting PDU is then cut up into 48-byte chunks, which are carried directly inside the payload of ATM cells without any further encapsulation

42. Encapsulation and segmentation for AAL5

43. 3.3.3 Virtual Path ATM uses a 24-bit identifier for vircuit circuits
8-bit virtual path identifier (VPI)
16-bit virtual circuit identifier (VCI)

44. Example
a corporation has two sites that connect to a public ATM network, and that at each site the corporation has a network of ATM switches
we could establish a virtual path between two sites using only the VPI field
within the corporate sites, however, the full 24-bit space is used for switching

45. Example of a virtual path

46. Advantage of virtual path
although there may be thousands or millions of virtual connections across the public network, the switches in the public network behave as if there is only one connection
there needs to be much less connection-state information stored in the switches, avoiding the need for big, expensive tables of per-VCI information

47. TP、VPs、and VCs

48. Example of VPs and VCs

49. Connection Identifiers

50. Virtual Connection Identifiers in UNIs and NNIs

51. ATM Cell

52. Routing with a Switch

53. 3.3.4 Physical Layers for ATM
In the ATM standard, it is assumed that ATM would run on top of a SONET physical layer
many ATM-over-SONET products
Actually, these two are entirely separable, e.g.,
lease a SONET link from a phone company and send whatever you want over it, including variable-length packets
send ATM cells over many other physical layers instead of SONET, e.g., over Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) links of various types

54. 3.4 Implementation and Performance
A very simple way to build a switch
buy a general-purpose workstation and equip it with a number of network interfaces
run suitable software to receive packets on one of its interfaces
perform any of the switching functions
send packets out another of its interfaces

55. A workstation used as packet switch

56. The figure shows a workstation with three network interfaces used as a switch
a path that a packet might take from the time it arrives on interface 1 until it is output on interface 2

57. we assume DMA (Direct Memory Access)
the workstation has a mechanism to move data directly from an interface to its main memory, i.e., direct memory access (DMA)
once the packet is in memory, the CPU examines its header to determine on which interface the packet should be out
it then uses DMA to move the packet out to the appropriate interface
the packet does not go to the CPU because the CPU inspects only the header of the packet

58. Main problem with using a workstation as a switch
its performance is limited by the fact that all packets must pass through a single point of contention
in the example shown, each packet crosses the I/O bus twice and is written to and read from main memory once
the upper bound on aggregate throughput of such a device is, thus, either half the main memory bandwidth or half the I/O bus bandwidth, whichever is less (usually it’s the I/O bus bandwidth)

59. example
a workstation with a 133-MHZ, 64-bit wide I/O bus can transmit data at a peak rate of a little over 8 Gbps (= 133 × 220 × 64)
since forwarding a packet involves crossing the bus twice, the actual limit is 4 Gbps
this upper bound also assumes that moving data is the only problem
a fair approximation for long packets
a bad one when packets are short
the cost of processing each packet- (1) parsing its header and (2) deciding which output link to transmit it on-is likely to dominate

60. example, a workstation can perform all the necessary processing to switch 1 million packets each second (packet per second (pps) rate)
if the average packet is short, say, 64 bytes
throughput = pps × (bits per packet)
= 1 × 106 × 64 × 8 (bits per second)
= 512 × 106 (bits per second)
this 512 Mbps would be shared by all users connected to the switch
example, a 10-port switch with this aggregate throughput would only be able to cope with an average data rate of 51.2 Mbps on each port

61. To address this problem
Switch
fabric
Control
processor
Output
port
Input
To address this problem
a large array of switch designs that reduce the amount of contention and provide high aggregate throughput
some contention is unavoidable
if every input has data to send to a single output, then they cannot all send it at once
if data destined for different outputs is arriving at different inputs, a well-designed switch will be able to move data from inputs to outputs in parallel, thus increasing the aggregate throughput

62. 3.4.1 Ports A 4 × 4 switch Switch fabric Control processor Output port
Input
A 4 × 4 switch

63. The 4 × 4 switch in the figure consists of
fabric
Control
processor
Output
port
Input
The 4 × 4 switch in the figure consists of
ports (input ports and output ports)
communicate with the outside world
contain fiber-optic receivers and buffers to hold packets that are waiting to be switched or transmitted, and often a significant amount of other circuitry that enables the switch to function
switch fabric
when presented with a packet, deliver it to the right output port
control processor (at least one)
in charge of the whole switch

64. Another key function of ports: buffering
Input port
the first place to look for performance bottlenecks
has to receive a steady stream of packets, analyze information in the header of each one to determine which output port (or ports) the packet must be sent and pass the packet on to the fabric
Another key function of ports: buffering
it can happen in either the input or the output port
it can also happen within the fabric (sometimes called internal buffering)

65. simple input buffering has some serious limitations
example, an input buffer implemented as a FIFO
as packets arrive at the switch, they are placed in the input buffer
the switch then tries to forward the packets at the front of each FIFO to their appropriate output port
if the packets at the front of several different input ports are destined for the same output port at the same time, then only one of them can be forwarded; the rest must stay in their input buffers

66. Simple illustration of head-of-line blocking

67. buffering drawback (head-of-line blocking)
occurs at input buffering
those packets left at the front of the input buffer prevent other packets further back in the buffer from getting a chance to go to their chosen outputs
buffering
wherever contention is possible
input port (contend for fabric)
internal (contend for output port)
output port (contend for link)

68. 3.4.2 Fabrics
Should be able to move packets from input ports to output ports with minimal delay and in a way that meets the throughput goals of the switch
Means fabrics display some degree of parallelism
Parallelism
a high-performance fabric with n ports can often move one packet from each of its n ports to one of the output ports at the same time

69. Types of fabric
shared bus
shared memory
crossbar
self-routing

70. Shared bus Shared memory
found in a conventional workstation used as a switch
the bus bandwidth determines the throughput of the switch, high-performance switches usually have specially designed busses rather than the standard busses found in PCs
Shared memory
packets are written into a memory location by an input port and then read from memory by the output ports
the memory bandwidth determines switch throughput, so wide and fast memory is typically used in this sort of design
it usually uses a specially designed, high-speed memory bus

71. Crossbar
a matrix of pathways that can be configured to connect any input port to any output port
in their simplest form, they require each output port to be able to accept packets from all inputs at once
Main problem: each port would have a memory bandwidth equal to the total switch throughput

72. A 4 × 4 crossbar switches

73. 000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Self-routing
rely on some information in the packet header to direct each packet to its correct output
usually a special “self-routing header” is appended to the packet by the input port after it has determined which output the packets needs to go to
this extra header is removed before the packet leaves the switch
self-routing fabrics are often built from large numbers of very simple 2×2 switching elements interconnected in regular patterns (i.e., banyan switching fabric)

74. A self-routing header is applied to a packet at input to enable the fabric to send the packet to the correct output, where it is removed: (a) packet arrives at input port; (b) input port attaches self-routing header to direct packet to correct output (c) self-routing header is removed at output port before packet leaves switch

75. constructed from simple 2 x 2 switching elements
Banyan Network
constructed from simple 2 x 2 switching elements
self-routing header attached to each packet
elements arranged to route based on this header
look at 1 bit in each self-routing header
route packets toward the upper output if it is zero or toward the lower output if it is one
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111

76. if two packets arrive at the same time and both have the bit set to the same value, then they want to be routed to the same output and a collision will occur
the banyan network routes all packets to the correct output without collisions if the packets are presented in ascending order

77. in the self-routing headers of four arriving packets. 
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Routing packets through a banyan network. The 3-bit numbers represent values
in the self-routing headers of four arriving packets.