CS 5516 Computer Architecture Networks: Lecture 11: ISDN & ATM
CS 5516 Computer Architecture Networks: Lecture 11: ISDN & ATM
CS 5516 Computer Architecture Networks: Lecture 11: ISDN & ATM
VA Tech VA Tech
History of ISDN Traditionally, local loop connectivity has been with an analog signal on copper
Inefficient, prone to breakdown and noise, and not ideal for data traffic Gradual conversion of the network backbone to to all-digital transmission and switching began in the1960s By mid-1970s, demand for end-to-end digital voice and data services was apparent In the US, while all voice switching is digital, the final connection from a local central office to customer equipment is still largely analog
In the early 1990s, an industry-wide effort began to establish a specific implementation for ISDN in the U.S.
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
History of ISDN Industry members agreed to create National ISDN 1 (NI-1) standard
Hardware and software compatible between different manufacturers Initially, Southwestern Bell and U.S. West would not deploy NI-1 software in their central office switches due to incompatibilities with their existing ISDN networks Ultimately, all Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) supported NI-1
A more comprehensive National ISDN 2 (NI-2) standard, was more recently adopted More recent popularity of ISDN
Manufacturers standards Competitive priced service Inexpensive ISDN connection equipment Desire to have relatively low-cost highbandwidth connections for internet or video teleconferencing applications
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) ISDN refers to a specific set of digital services provided through a single, standard interface
Allows data to be transmitted simultaneously using end-to-end digital connectivity The various services could be supported by different networks
The ISDN standards define two interfaces between the user and the network
The Basic Rate Interface (BRI)
Two "B" channels and one "D" channel
BRI
BRI
PRI
PRI
ISDN 3 BRI was intended as a replacement for the basic telephone service
. In North America, the associated transmission format over twisted wire pairs was selected to operate at 160 kbps and use the band that is occupied by traditional analog voice. The two B channels could provide two digital voice connections and the D channel would provide signaling and access to a packet network. In practice, often used in digital videoconferencing and in providing access to Internet Service at higher speeds than conventional modems
PRI was intended for providing access from user premises equipment such as PBX's
Multiple Devices
Previously, it was necessary to have a phone line for each simultaneously connected device ISDN allows multiple digital channels to be operated simultaneously through regular phone wiring ISDN allows the combination of different digital data sources and have the information routed to the proper destination
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
The signaling also indicates who is calling, what type of call it is (data/voice), and what number was dialed ISDN equipment is capable of making intelligent decisions on how to direct the call
Layer 3:
Specified by the ITU Q-series documents Q.930 through Q.93 Connection-oriented
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data Link Physical
OSI Reference Model ISDN
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
Tele-Services
Bearer Services
ISDN Interfaces Technically, ISDN devices must go through an Network Termination 2 (NT-2) device
NT-2 communicates with terminal equipment Handles Layer 2 and 3 ISDN protocols Converts the T interface into the S interface S and T interfaces are electrically equivalent
U
ISDN Network
LT
ET
End of Service Providers Network - North America End of Service Providers Network - Europe
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
ISDN Interfaces 2 All devices that are designed specifically for ISDN are designated Terminal Equipment 1 (TE1) All other communication devices that are not ISDN capable, but have a standard telephone interface ( R interface)
e.g. ordinary analog telephones, FAX machines, and modems Designated Terminal Equipment 2 (TE2)
TE2 equipment can use Terminal Adapters (TA) to connect to an ISDN S/T bus The connection to other switches within the phone network performs the Line termination (LT) and Exchange Termination (ET) functions
The LT and ET functions communicate via the V interface
S/T interface
Four-wire interface interface used when the NT1 is a separate device or provided to customer where Telcos supply the NT-1 device One wire pair for receive and one for transmit provide full-duplex service Up to 7 devices can be placed on a S/T bus
Power Supply
Plugs into a standard wall outlet and provides power to the ISDN line Unlike a standard phone line, many Telcos do not provide the power on the ISDN line Many NT1 devices have the Power function built-in Should have a separate analog phone service in case of emergency power outages
ISDN Routers
Function similar to that of a standard router Allow multiple computers on a LAN to share a single ISDN BRI connection Connects to Ethernet Hubs Many ISDN routers also support analog voice, modem, or fax applications, as well as network management capabilities
Hub ISDN Router NT1
Broadband ISDN Requirements of high-definition television and high-speed data interconnections prompted work on a Broadband ISDN (BISDN) standard
Needed higher bit rates than those provided by ISDN The BISDN effort resulted in an entirely new network architecture
BISDN architecture is based on the connection-oriented transfer and switching of small fixed-length packets
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Targeting a very wide range of services
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Protocol standard for implementing Broadband ISDN
Transmits data as fixed sized packets Driven by telecommunications companies
B-ISDN was an extension of ISDN that can provide integrated broadband services
Such as high-speed-data service, video phone, video conferencing, CATV services along with traditional ISDN services
ATM is designed for switching short fixed length packets over Gigabit/sec links across very large distances In the US, ATM is being supported by the ANSI sponsored T1S1 subcommittee
In Europe, ATM is supported by ETS Minor differences between the standards CCITT study group XVIII working on merging differences and coming up with a single global B-ISDN standard for user interfaces
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
Synchronous Transfer Mode (STM) STM is used by telecommunication backbone networks for the long-haul transfer of packetized voice and data
It is a circuit switched networking mechanism End points establish connection and allocate and bandwidth for the entire session Bandwidth allocated even when they may not actually be transmitting the data
STM divides the bandwidth of the STM links (e.g. T1 and T3 links)
Fundamental unit of transmission called time-slots or buckets Fixed numbers of buckets, trains and are labeled from 1 to N
Trains repeat periodically every T time periods Buckets in the train always in the same position with the same label
Inefficiency of STM Telecommunications companies were developing long distance links with Gigabit/sec speeds
Expensive infrastructure had to be used in an integrated way to be cost-effective Traffic needs which represented the future of multi-media requirements :
real time traffic such as voice and video which can tolerate some loss but not delay non real time traffic such as computer data and file transfer which may tolerate some delay but not loss
The problem is the bursty nature of putting integrated traffic on the same medium
Peak bandwidth requirement may be high but the actual transmission duration may be small Traffic must be transmitted at the peak rate of the burst, but the average arrival time between bursts may be quite long and randomly distributed For such bursty traffic, STM represents a considerable waste of bandwidth
Each connection is reserved a full-time bucket based at their peak bandwidth requirements
If on the average only 1 in 10 buckets carries data, the unused buckets could be reused for another pending connection
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
Advent of ATM ATM was independently proposed by the AT&T in the US, and several large telecommunications companies in Europe Instead of identifying a connection by the bucket number, in ATM the connection identifier is carried along with the data in any bucket
Use small buckets so that if any bucket gets dropped due to congestion, not too much data would get lost, and could easily be recovered "Fast packet switching with short fixed length packets" The fixed size of the packets arose out of motivation to sustain the same transmitted voice quality as in STM networks, but in the presence of some lost packets on ATM networks
Virtual Circuit Identifier VCI The two end points in an ATM network are associated with each other via a VCI label
Vice a time-slot or bucket number as in a STM network
The VCI number is carried in the header portion of the Fast Packet or ATM Packet or ATM Cell Convenient to consider an ATM interface as another communications port
From a system software point of view, it can be treated like any other data link layer method An ATM port may be assigned an IP address like an Ethernet port on a host is assigned an IP address
VCI 1 VCI 2 VCI 3 VCI 4 VCI 5 VCI 6 VCI 3 VCI 4 VCI 5 VCI 6 VCI 1 VCI 2
VP Switching
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
ATM Cells The ATM cell is the basic unit of information transfer in the B-ISDN ATM protocol
Fixed cell size of 53 bytes Five byte header field
VCI Label - 3 bytes Control - 1 byte Header checksum - 1 byte (Optional Adaption Layer info - 4 bytes)
ATM cells are transported via virtual channels and indirectly in virtual paths
A virtual channel is a unidirectional pipe A virtual path is made from of a set of channels
SVCI VPI 1 VCI 1 VCI 2 VPI 2 VCI 1 VCI 2 VCI 1 VCI 2 VCI 3 VPI 3 VPI 6 VPI 9 VCI 1 VPI 10 VCI 1 VCI 2 VPI 8 VPI 5 VCI 1 VCI 2 SVCI VPI 4 VPI 7 VCI 1 VCI 2
SVCI
ATM Protocol Layers ATM Cell layer is hardware-implemented and is approximately at the Data Link layer
Provides basic end-to-end connection, flow control, and routing services Does not exactly fit the OSI model since it performs some functions defined at higher layers
The ATM Adaption layer provides the interface between the ATM layer and higher layers
Resolve any disparity between a service required by the user and services available at the ATM layer
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data Link Physical
OSI Reference Model
ATM Adaption Layer (AAL) ATM Cell Layer
Higher Layers
Physical
ATM
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
Bandwidth reservations
Fixed allocation - for a connection carrying a continuous bit stream traffic (e,g. 8khz voice) Variable allocation - for variable frequency traffic (e.g. interactive compressed video) No specific allocation - relies on statistical sharing among bursty sources Multiple priorities can be established for any of the above categories
ATM Relies on considerable usersupplied traffic profile information in order to provide the connection with the desired service quality
Effects the cost/performance of an ATM network
CS 5516 - Computer Networks
Copyright 2000 Roy M. Wnek. All rights reserved.
Service Classification Service Class Timing Relation between Source Services Required Bit Rate Connection Mode Examples of and Destination
Class A
Constant
Connection Constant - oriented bit rate video Connection Variable bit - oriented rate video Connection Connection - oriented -oriented data transfer Connection Connection - less less data transfer
Class B
Required
Variable
Class C
Not Required
Variable
Class D
Not Required
Variable