ATM LAN Emulations

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Objectives

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In this module...

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Introduction

Why is Lan Emulation Required?

all existing LAN applications to run over ATM the use of ATM as a backbone to interconnect existing legacy LANs the interconnection of ATM-attached servers/workstations to each other and to those on legacy LANs multiple Emulated LANs which are logically separate, to use the same physical ATM network

Ethernet Token Ring

ATM Network

Ethernet Token Ring

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Introduction

Problems carrying IP traffic over ATM the ATM network must carry traffic that is connectionless and in a network layer protocol format IP data, for example, is formatted in packets, not cells IP is typically carried over a broadcast medium such as Ethernet or Token Ring IP uses IP rather than ATM addresses. The requirements for transport of IP, or other Layer 3 protocols, are therefore fundamentally different from ATM.

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History

Two issues in carrying network layer protocol traffic across the ATM network: Packet encapsulation - how the network layer protocol packets are packaged into ATM cells Address resolution - how an ATM network device finds the location of an IP address and connects

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Approaches
Three approaches to solve the previous two problems: Native mode operation - define IP connectivity over ATM using an address resolution mechanism and encapsulation of Layer 3 protocols in ATM cells. AKA the Classical IP and Multiprotocol Encapsulation over ATM LANE - a MAC-layer protocol used to provide transparent LAN services across the ATM network. An enhancement of LANE, Multiprotocol over ATM (MPOA) uses LANE technology with cut-through routing to improve performance switching to offer another solution Tag switching - combines the benefits of routing with the performance of switching fot forwarding IP packets over an ATM network.
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Native mode
IETF - IP Over ATM initiated by IETF Treats ATM as just another communications technology Encapsulate IP in AAL5

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LANE
ATMF - LAN Emulation initiated by ATMF Carry various MAC protocols Strategy is to emulate the MAC layer of 802.x LAN technologies so that higher-layer protocols can run without modification (IP, IPX, NetBIOS, etc.) ATMF LANE SWG established in November 1993. Defines mechanisms for emulating either an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet or an 802.5 Token Ring LAN. Basic function of the LANE protocol is to resolve MAC addresses to ATM addresses so that LANE end systems can set up direct connections between themselves and then forward data.

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LANE

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LANE Application
Two primary applications of LANE Connectivity between LAN-attached stations across an ATM network, effectively extending LANs over a high-speed ATM transport backbone.

Connectivity between ATM-attached hosts and LAN-attached hosts. Centralized hosts with high-speed ATM interfaces can provide services, such as Domain Name System (DNS), to traditional LAN-attached devices.

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LANE Application

The following types of devices can be used to support LANE services: Directly attached ATM hosts with ATM NICs Layer 2 devices, such as switches with ATM interfaces or the ATM switch routers Layer 3 devices, such as routers with ATM interfaces
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LANE Devices
The LANE protocol can be deployed in two types of ATM-attached equipment:

ATM network interface cards (NICs) LAN devices, such as switches and routers.

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ATM NICs
ATM NICs implement the LANE protocol and interface to the ATM network while presenting the current LAN service interface to the higher-level protocol drivers within the end system.

The network-layer protocols on the end system continue to communicate as before by using existing procedures.

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ATM-attached LAN switches and routers

The second class of network device consists of ATM-attached LAN switches and routers.

These devices, along with directly attached ATM hosts, are equipped with ATM NICs,

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LANE Protocol Stack

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LANE Servers and Components

The LANE specification defines several components that enable the protocol to provide the broadcast and address resolution services required to emulate traditional LANs: LANE client (LEC)An entity in an end system such as a workstation, LAN switch, or router that performs data forwarding and receiving, address resolution, and other control functions for a single endpoint in a single emulated LAN. - The LEC provides a standard LAN service to any higher layers. - A router or switch can have multiple resident LECs, each connecting with different emulated LANs. - The LANE client registers its MAC and ATM address with the LES.

LANE server (LES)A server that provides a registration facility for clients to join the emulated LAN. - The LES handles LAN Emulation Address Resolution Protocol (LE_ARP) requests and maintains a look-up table of LAN destination MAC addresses. - Each emulated LAN must have an LES.

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LANE Servers and Components

Broadcast-and-unknown server (BUS)A server that floods unknown destination traffic and forwards multicast and broadcast traffic to clients within an emulated LAN. - Each emulated LAN must have a BUS.

LANE configuration server (LECS)A server that assigns individual clients to particular emulated LANs by directing them to the LES that corresponds to the emulated LAN. - The LECS maintains a database of LANE client ATM or MAC addresses and their emulated LANs. - One LECS is required for each LANE cloud, but an LECS can serve multiple emulated LANs. - The LECS can enforce security by restricting ELAN membership to certain LECs based on their MAC addresses.

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Server Redundancy

The LANE servers could be single points of failure in a LANE.

Cisco has developed a fault tolerance mechanism, known as Simple Server Redundancy Protocol (SSRP), to eliminate these single points of failure.

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LANE VCC Types

Communication among LANE components is ordinarily handled by several types of SVCs.

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LANE VCC Types

Control direct VCCThe LEC, as part of its initialization, sets up a bidirectional point-to-point VCC to the LES for sending or receiving control traffic.

- The LEC is required to accept control traffic from the LES through this VCC and must maintain the VCC while participating as a member of the emulated LAN. Control distribute VCCThe LES can optionally set up a unidirectional VCC back to the LEC for distributing control traffic. -The control distribute VCC enables information from the LES to be received whenever a new MAC address joins the LAN or whenever the LES cannot resolve an LE_ARP request. - Whenever an LES cannot resolve an LE_ARP request from a LEC, it forwards the request out the control distribute VCC to all of the clients in the emulated LAN.

Data direct VCCOnce an ATM address has been resolved by a LEC, this bidirectional point-to-point VCC is set up between clients that want to exchange unicast data traffic. -Most client traffic travels through these VCCs.

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LANE VCC Types

Multicast send VCCThe LEC sets up a unidirectional point-to-point VCC to the BUS. -This VCC is used by the LEC to send multicast traffic to the BUS for forwarding out the multicast forward VCC. -The LEC also sends unicast data on this VCC until it resolves the ATM address of a destination.

Multicast forward VCCThe BUS sets up a unidirectional VCC to the LECs for distributing data from the BUS. -This can either be a unidirectional point-to-point or unidirectional point-tomultipoint VCC. -Data sent by a LEC over the multicast send VCC is forwarded to all LECs over the multicast forward VCC.

Configure direct VCCThis is a transient VCC set up by the LEC to the LECS for the purpose of obtaining the ATM address of the LES that controls the particular LAN the LEC wishes to join.

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LANE Addressing
On a LAN, packets are addressed by the MAC-layer address of the destination and source nodes.

To provide similar functionality for LANE, MAC-layer addressing must be supported, and every LANE client must have a MAC address.

Every LANE component (LEC, LES/BUS, and LECS) must have a unique ATM address.

LANE uses NSAP-format ATM end system addresses

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LANE Addressing - Example

Default address of a Cisco switch AFI=47indicates an address of type DCC ICD=0091(Cisco-specific) Cisco-specific address type (part of HO-DSP)=81000000 Cisco switch ID=MAC format address ESI=MAC address repeated Selector equals 01 byte

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LANE Limitations
Compared to RFC 1577 - Classical IP and ARP over ATM and RFC 1483 protocols - Multiprotocol Encapsulation over ATM Adaptation Layer 5, LANE is relatively complex to configure. Redundancy is problematic across vendors. Even with redundancy, there is a reaction time to switchover. Can be difficult to troubleshoot. Provides no QoS support. Extremely heavy load on LANE services, such as the number of nodes in an emulated LAN and the total number of emulated LANs, can degrade network performance.

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Fault-Tolerant Operation of LANE Server Components

Ciscos LANE implementation includes a proprietary protocol, the Simple Server Redundancy Protocol (SSRP).

Provides fault tolerance using standard LANE protocols and mechanisms.

If a failure occurs on the LECS or on the LES/BUS, the emulated LAN can continue to operate using the services of a backup server.

SSRP's redundancy feature works only with Cisco LECSs and LES/BUS combinations. Third-party LANE components will interoperate normally with Cisco components but will not have the advantage of the redundancy features.

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Fault-Tolerant Operation of LANE Server Components

LECS redundancyuses a master-backup scheme for a given set of emulated LANs. - There is one master LECS; there can be multiple backup LECSs. - The databases of all LECS must be identical; they must include the same LES addresses and corresponding ELAN names. - The LECS turns on server redundancy by adjusting its database to accommodate multiple LES addresses for a particular emulated LAN. The additional servers provide backup for that emulated LAN. - LECs maintain multiple LECS addresses via ILMI; if the master LECS fails, a backup responds. When a LECS switches over, no previously joined clients are affected.

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Fault-Tolerant Operation of LANE Server Components

LES/BUS redundancyuses a master-backup scheme for a given emulated LAN. The LECS always keeps an open VCC with each LES/BUS. In the case of an LES/BUS failure, the LECS establishes a connection with the next LES/BUS serving that emulated LAN. When a LES/BUS switches over, momentary loss of clients occurs if any of the control VCCs go down. They then reinitialize and are all transferred to the new LES/BUS.

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Multiprotocol over ATM

In LANE, connectivity between hosts in different emulated LANs is possible only by traversing a router. With heavy inter-ELAN traffic, this can lead to congestion at the router and increased latency.

Multiprotocol over ATM (MPOA) relieves the router bottleneck for interELAN traffic by adding cut-through routing to existing LANE capability. (Intra-ELAN traffic continues to be serviced by LANE alone.) With cut-through routing, based on the Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP), inter-ELAN traffic with significant flow can avoid going through the router, and can be switched via a direct connection through the ATM network. Additionally MPOA provides QoS support. IPs Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) parameters can be mapped to ATMs QoS parameters to take advantage of ATMs traffic contract.

Significant flow means that a certain number of packets (ATM Forum default is 10) are sent to the same destination in a given time (ATM Forum default is 1 second).
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Multiprotocol over ATM

An MPOA-enabled network uses the following components: Routersrun their conventional routing and discovery protocols; forward on behalf of LANE-only clients. Routers can also forward short-lived flows, such as DNS or SMTP queries from MPOA clients, also called MPCs. Edge devicesforward packets between an ATM backbone and LANs. Edge devices can serve as an MPOA client, as can a LEC. ATM-attached hosts or servers can also contain an MPOA client.The edge device is usually a LAN switch with a LANE interface. MPOA server (MPS)is responsible for responding to queries from the MPOA client to resolve IP-to-ATM addresses.

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Advantages MPOA
MPOA offers the following key advantages: Like LANE, on which it is based, requires no modification to upper layer applications. Reduces latency caused by multiple router hops for inter-ELAN traffic. Provides for QoS support via RSVP. Can use Cisco SSRP for LANE redundancy with added redundancy at the router level using the Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP). Can be implemented incrementally, adding MPOA in areas where it is needed. The entire network does not have to be upgraded at the same time.

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Limitations of MPOA

The following might be limitations to MPOA, depending upon your needs: Like LANE, is appropriate only for LAN, not WAN. Supports only IP unicast.

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That's all, folks!!

...till we meet again...

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