Applications to ATM

Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (BISDN) is conceived as a universal digital network providing both integrated switching and services. Typical services include data, voice, video, high-resolution image, etc. [Spea 87]. Encouraged by developments of fast packet switches [Turn 85] and ATD experiments in France [Deva 88], a packet-oriented virtual circuit transfer mode, called ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), has been adopted as the universal transport vehicle of BISDN services [Minz 89]. Data from various sources are segmented into fixed-size ATM cells and statistically multiplexed to high-speed transmission lines and switches. An ATM cells consists of a 5-octet header and a 48-octet payload fields. Unlike the conventional STM (Synchronous Transfer Mode) technique which switches data according to positions in recurrent structure (frame), ATM cells are switched by labels containing routing information in the headers. Label-based switching is believed to be flexible in integrating diverse traffic types, envisioned for BISDN environments.