ATM IN LAN

TRADITIONAL LAN TECHNOLOGIES

LAN technologies like Ethernet and Token Ring have

been considered and are being considered adequate to satisfy the needs of most LAN applications. With growth in size of n/ws and user requirements, serious need to provide more bandwidth to users. Till now shared LANs are being used, this need can be fulfilled by migrating to switched LANs. Shared LANs:
Multiple hosts share a common communication channel. Thus, for a 10 Mbps Ehernet LAN with 10 hosts, each host,

on an average gets 1 Mbps of bandwidth. This is true only if LAN operates at 100 percent capacity because CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multi Access Collision Detection) technique used in Ethernet reduces the effective

 During heavy load conditions, numerous collisions further

reduce the throughput. Moreover, in shared LAN, a frame is broadcasted to all the hosts, which requires that host filter unwanted frames Broadcasting frames to all hosts makes the network traffic susceptible to security voilations.
Switched LANs:
E.g. switched Ethernet. Provides dedicated bandwidth to each host. Each host in the switched LAN is directly connected to a

switch (or intelligent hub) and thus get the entire channel bandwidth for itself. Since switch forwards frames according to the destination address, the filtering overheads and security concerns are eliminated. Fault diagnosis becomes easier as switch can monitor each link individually.

ATM in LAN
An ATM LAN consists of LAN capable end-systems

attached to ATM switches(i.e. switched LAN). ATM end-system communicate with each other by using Permanent Virtual Connections(PVC) or Switched Virtual Connections(SVC). ATM switches are connected by using a complete or a partial mesh, and communicate with each other using PNNI or other routing protocols. ATM is inherently switched transfer medium. Other Benefits of using ATM in LAN environment:
Greater Bandwidth: Technologies like Ethernet and Token Ring offer LAN connectivity at 4, 10, 16, 100 and 1000 Mbps(max). But ATM offers wide range of bandwidth ranging from 25 Mbps to

 QoS guarantees: Ethernet and Token ring provide connectionless mode of data transfer. Lack of QoS guarantees is the drawback of connectionless service. But ATM offers connection-oriented service. connection-oriented service provides users with the capability to reserve resources by choosing one of many service classes and provides QoS guarantees. Security Aspects: Because of connection-oriented approach, a frame is sent to an end system where it is destined not to all end systems.

Seamless Networking: LAN technologies cannot be used in WAN environment. ATM integrates a LAN and WAN network. This integration offers numerous benefits like reduced costs due to single infrastructure, better manageability and higher scalability.

LAN EMULATION
LANE

provides a means for traditional LAN technologies like Ethernet and Token ring to co-exist with ATM LANs in a hetrogeneous LAN environment. Using LANE, non-ATM end systems can communicate with each other and also with endsystems directly attached to an ATM network. Done to leverage initial deployment of ATM in a traditional LAN environment.

ISSUES AND REQUIREMENTS FOR LAN EMULATION

LANE proposes minimal changes in the existing LAN infrastructure so

that ATM can co-exist with other LAN technologies. But co-existence demands certain requirements as follows: Programming Interface:
Most important challenge is to define a place for ATM in the protocol stack. Or, LANE must define type of APIs that ATM will provide to its users:

Low-level Interface: Provides similar services as provided by IEEE MAC sub-layer. Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIC) and Open-Data Link Interface (ODI) are examples. Advantageous because no changes are required in the existing software applications. Deployment of ATM becomes simple. Drawback: provides connectionless service, making QoS capabilities of ATM invisible to user applications. Doesnt provide native capabilities.(Direct interface b/w ATM & user level applications)

 High-level interface:
In order to effectively utilize the native capabilities of ATM, Performance efficient. Several alternatives exist for ATM to provide a high-level interface:

To consider ATM as a link layer protocol(frame relay) and adapt it to existing n/w layer protocols. E.g. Classical IP over ATM means to carry IP traffic over ATM traffic. To treat ATM as either a n/w layer or transport layer protocol. Both requires significant change in existing s/w along with a spate of standardization activities to make this idea technologically feasible.

In short term, a lower level interface is attractive. In long term, high-level interface is expected to become more widespread.

 Connectionless Services: For LAN emulation, ATM must provide connectionless service over a connectionoriented framework. 2 techniques are there to achieve this: Server-based method:
In this method, additional n/w entities in the form of connectionless servers(CS) are

used to provide connectionless services. These entities either reside in the switch themselves(switch design needs to be modified then) or are physically distinct entities. Each ATM end-system has atleast one connection(SVC or PVC) with CS. The servers are connected among themselves by using ATM VCs. Packets received from higher layers are transmitted by the end-systems to CS, After appending the destination address. The server then forwards the packets to appropriate end-system. Benefits: Reduced requirement of VC connections. Bottleneck in terms of performance.

 Connection-based method:
A connection is established b/w every pair of communicating end-systems. The connectionless service is emulated by forwarding packets b/w the source and

destination end-system over a separate ATM VC for each source and destination. Offers better performance. But no of VCs reqd is quite large. For a network of N end systems, N(N-1)/2 connections are required. The no can be reduced because an end-system doesnt communicate with every other end-system at same time. Active connection with only those end-systems for which packets are being transmitted. If a packet is received for a given destination and no active connection for that destination exists, a connection is established. This process of connection-establishment is called rapid connection setup.

Both the methods are used to provide connectionless service. Initially when a connection is not established, all packets destined for that end-

system are sent to the server(BUS-Broadcast and Unknown Server). The BUS then forwards the packet to appropriate end-system. Once a direct connection with end-system is established, packets are forwarded by using the direct connection.

 Broadcast/Multicast Services: Point-to-multipoint connections: Two techniques are used. First technique:
Each end-system establishes a point-to-multipoint connection with every other end-

system in the network (i.e. there are multiple point-to-multipoint connections in the network). Biggest limitation of this is number of virtual connections required, is N*(N-1). Moreover, for every addition of a node, the network is flooded by signalling messages. For a network with N end-systems, the addition of a node requires the establishment of N point-to-point connections and one point-to-multipoint connection.
Second technique:
To reduce VC requirement, and to simplify procedures for add/drop operations, a

multicast server is used to broadcast/multicast packets. The leaves establish a point-to-point connection with the multicast server, which in turn establishes a point-to-multipoint connection with all leaves. This technique requires N point-to point connections and one point-to-multipoint connection per multicast group. The add/drop procedure is also simple.

In LANE, multicast server is called BUS

 Multipoint-to-multipoint connections:
Instead of establishing multiple connections, it is definitely better to have one

multipoint-to-multipoint connection wherein any end-system can send or receive packets from any other end system. The key challenge is identification problem that arises due to interleaving of cells from multiple sources, An end system must be able to recognize the identity of sender for each cell received. Better to use VCI as multiplexing identifier and use VP connection for data transfer. Can also use Multiplexing identifier (MID) field of AAL3/4 cell to demultiplex cells from different sources.

MAC addresses
The MAC address is a unique value associated

with a network adapter. MAC addresses are also known as hardware addresses or physical addresses. They uniquely identify an adapter on a LAN.
A Media Access Control address (MAC address) is

a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment.

 MAC Driver Interface in ATM Stations: Needs to offer MAC driver service primitives like NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification, etc. Address Resolution: Mechanism to bind a high-level protocol address (like IP) to a low level

hardware address (like Ethernet). In TCP/IP, this binding is achieved by Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
If in a subnet, a node knows the IP address of the destination node. In order to find the hardware address of the destination node, the source node

broadcasts the ARP request to all the nodes in the subnet. In case the destination node resides in the same subnet, it responds back with the address binding information containing its physical and IP address. Otherwiae, the defaulter router for the subnet responds back with its own address.

 Address resolution in traditional LANs is simple because of

their inherent broadcast nature. In ATM, a similar broadcast method is used.

An end-system broadcasts an address resolution request to

all other end-systems in the ATM sub-net. All end-systems check the destination MAC address in the received frame and responds if their address matches with that contained in the frame.
Another alternative is to use ADDRESS RESOLUTION

SERVER, which maintained a centralized database.

The database contains a mapping between ATM addresses

and MAC or higher layer address for each ATM end system in the network. This mapping is obtained at the time an end system registers itself with the central server that maintains such a database. ATM end system send their Address resolution requests to the address resolution server, which responds back with

 Emulated LANs:
In some environments, there is a need to configure multiple separate domains

within a single network. Similar is the case with emulated LAN, which consists of a group of ATMattached devices. This group of devices is logically analogous to an Ethernet/IEEE 802.3. Several Emulated LAN can be configured within an ATM network. Membership in ELAN is independent of where an end system is physically connected. The multiple ELANs over a single ATM network is logically independent. Therefore, a broadcast frame originated from a member of a particular ELAN is distributed only to member of that ELAN. An end-system may belong to multiple ELANs as well. AN ATM switch can provide connectivity to ATM end-systems belonging to different ELAN.

 Interconnection with existing LANs:

In exissting LANs, the interconnection b/w different LANs is achieved using

BRIDGES. A bridge is a device that operates at the data link layer and provides means to connect different LAN segments. Two basic techniques:
Transparent bridging: All capability to perform bridging resides in the bridge itself and the end-systems

remain unaware of the fact that a bridge is being used. Techniques like flooding and adaptive learning are used in this. When a frame is received, a bridge looks at the source address of the frame and searches a hash table. If an entry doesnt exist, the frame is flooded to all connected LANs and an entry in the hash table corresponding to that address is created. This entry will identify the LAN segment to which frames bearing the same address in their destination address field are received, it will be used for forwarding.

 Old entries are removed periodically. A spanning tree is also maintained. Source-route bridging: An end-system wishing to communicate with another must know the complete

route (called source-route) to the detination. This source route is the sequence of LANs and bridges that a frame must traverse to reach the destination. In order to find source route discovery frames are used.

LANE COMPONENTS
Each emulated LAN has atleast one LE Client (LEC), and the components

of LE Service. LE Service consists of mandatory components that include LE Server (LES) and Broadcast and Unknown Server (BUS) and the optional component LE Configuration Server (LECS). The interface b/w LEC and LE service fall under purview of LAN Emulation User Network Interface (LUNI) protocol. One LES and one BUS can service exactly one emulated LAN. One LECS, however, can service more than one emulated LAN. The LANE service components are interconnected by VCCs for configuration, database synchronization, control and forwarding.

 LAN Emulation Client (LEC):

Any network element (e.g. end-system, bridges and routers) attached to an ATM

network and participating in LAN Emulation, contains LAN Emulation Client. 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 In order to provide this emulation, an LEC uses data forwarding capability of AAL5 layer and signalling capability of UNI signalling protocol. Associated with single ELAN only. Since a node can be a part of multiple ELANs, a separate LEC is configured for every ELAN of which the node is a part of. An LEC is identified by a unique ATM address and is associated with one or more MAC addresses reachable through that ATM address. The LANE client registers its MAC and ATM address with the LES. The LEC provides a standard LAN service to any higher layers that interface to it.

 LAN Emulation Server (LES):

The LES implements the control co-ordination function for the emulated LAN. Facility to register and resolve unicast and multicast MAC addresses to ATM

addresses. A server that provides a registration facility for clients to join the emulated LAN. LES maintains a database of registered LAN destinations and their associated ATM addresses. The entries of database are obtained when ATM end system registeers its address with LES. The LES uses database then to resolve MAC addresses to ATM addresses.

 Broadcast and Unknown Server (LES):

Facilility for centralized forwarding of broadcast frames, and of those frames

whose destination address is not registrered with the LES.

LAN Emulation Configuration Server (LES):
Acts as a central repository of configuration information and assigns individual

LE Clients to an Emulated LAN. LECS provides LECs, ATM address of LES corresponding to that ELAN.