ATM: A contribution to the debate on broadband ISDN

The definition of broadband ISDN recently became a major topic of research and predevelopments. Fast packet technologies are widely recognized as the basis for BISDN. Even if international consensus has appeared far more quickly than could have been expected a few years ago, a lot of issues remain open. This paper is a contribution to discussions on some important topics relating to the definition of asynchronous transfer mode.     

Evolution of ISDN towards broadband ISDN

Worldwide activities to evolve integrated services digital network (ISDN) into an optical-fiber-based universal broadband network have resulted in the first baseline documents, such as CCITT Recommendation I.121. The asynchronous transfer mode has been established as a key element of broadband ISDN (BISDN). The adoption of the G.707-709 recommendations on the new digital transmission hierarchy will also strongly influence further BISDN development. The author presents the current state of the BISDN discussion, especially within CCITT, briefly addressing broadband services and then concentrating on the user-network interface, as its definition is of utmost importance with respect to the introduction of a worldwide unique BISDN. Network scenarios and evolution and interworking aspects of the arising broadband realizations are also addressed     

A new direction for broadband ISDN

The industry strategy to introduce broadband ISDN is addressed. This strategy is placed within a marketing context, and possible ramifications are considered. It is suggested that the current vision of a complex, multifeatured network rolling out in 1994 may be overly ambitious and still not meet end-user needs. An alternate strategy based on a minimal technical solution is derived and discussed     

Migration to broadband ISDN

The current state of telecommunications in Japan is briefly discussed, with particular reference to broadband services. Experience with the migration from the analog telephone network to the present narrowband integrated services digital networks (ISDN) is described. Three strategies for the transition from narrowband ISDN to broadband ISDN are examined. The market-driven strategy is to replace existing metallic subscriber loops with optical media, wherever possible, even if only narrowband services are required, with the expectation that these subscribers will eventually use broadband services. The service-oriented strategy entails putting into place a flexible and multipurpose platform that would also allow HDTV distribution and bidirectional communications. Early installation of such a platform would allow for the early announcement of broadband services, which would in turn stimulate demand. The benefits and drawbacks of each of these strategies are discussed. The advance-investment strategy is to press ahead with the introduction of optical subscriber loops to accelerate technological innovation, even if the cost is somewhat high. Other issues that are important to the migration of broadband ISDN are noted     

Technologies towards broadband ISDN

It is argued that it is vital to form a sound strategy for developing broadband integrated services digital network (BISDN) technology and services and deploying them in the field, so that smooth migration from the existing network is accelerated. Three major steps in this context are to expand fiber networks into the subscriber loop area to provide broadband capabilities everywhere, to construct a universal digital network that facilitates smooth evolution from the existing network to the broadband network of the future through deployment of (SDH) synchronous digital hierarchy transmission systems, and to integrate both services and network components through introduction of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technologies. Development efforts now being carried out at Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories along this line are described, and the impact on network construction and service offerings is indicated     

New directions in signaling for broadband ISDN

User networks signaling is considered. The evolution of signaling protocols is outlined, analyzing the forces producing changes in the past. Emerging broadband switching technologies and services are discussed, emphasizing capabilities that might be required. A conceptual model for representing integrated-services digital network (ISDN) calls is presented as the basis for structuring a more flexible signaling protocol to meet the needs for a broadband environment     

B-ISDN/ATM协议

本文阐述了 B-ISDN/ATM协议的结构,并结合一些应用实例论述了各层的功能。     

Narrowband ISDN and broadband ISDN service and network interworking

For a significant period of time, B-ISDN will coexist with the 64-kb/s-based (narrowband) ISDN. The specification of a concept and the mapping functions employed for interworking between the two networks, in particular for voice services, is a major factor for the success of B-ISDN     

World-wide standardization of broadband ISDN

A growing market demand for high-performance voice, data, image and video networks, coupled with advances in high-speed technologies has heightened interest in broadband ISDN (BISDN) throughout the world. Network providers, equipment manufacturers and standards bodies are working jointly to accelerate the definition of BISDN interfaces in anticipation of emerging market opportunities. BISDN is being designed as the foundation upon which to implement very flexible, high-bandwidth, high-performance networks. A multiplexing concept called asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), which can offer bandwidth on demand at rates exceeding 150 Mb/s, high-speed packet switching, and an efficient protocol which adapts existing information streams into the ATM format are key attributes of the emerging BISDN network standards. This paper reviews the motivations behind BISDN, explains its key attributes and challenges and discusses possible strategies for evolving today's network toward BISDN.     

Sprint's evolution to broadband ISDN

One telecommunications company's-Sprint's-transformation of their infrastructure architecture away from dedicated transmission facilities and toward high-bandwidth virtual facilities which will enable customers to construct transmission networks that can be reconfigured almost instantaneously is described. Sprint's current X.25, frame-relay, switched circuit, and private line services are reviewed. The evolving architecture that will, on a moment's notice, enable a customer to redirect his traffic among the networks as well as to dynamically expand and contract transmission bandwidth to any of the networks is discussed. The architecture will be based on frame-relay permanent logical links at the end of 1992 and move to ATM cell-based access in 1994 to 1995     

A self-routing multistage switching network for broadband ISDN

A switching network that approaches a maximum throughput of 100% as buffering is increased is proposed. This self-routing switching network consists of simple 2×2 switching elements, distributors, and buffers located between stages and in the output ports. The proposed switching requires a speedup factor of two. The structure and the operation of the switching network are described, and its performance is analyzed. The switch has log₂N stages that move packets in a store-and-forward fashion, incurring a latency of log₂ N time periods. The performance analysis of the switch under uniform traffic pattern shows that the additional delay is small, and a maximum throughput of 100% is achieved as buffering is increased     

Traffic studies of a multiplexer in an ATM network and applications to the future broadband ISDN

In the first part of this paper the influence of the arrival process on these three performance parameters is discussed. The values of these three performance parameters depend strongly on the utilization distribution over the input trunks of the multiplexer while the total utilization on the input trunks is fixed. If there is the same utilization on all input trunks, the values of these three performance paramters reach a maximum. This result is also valid for an ATM switching matrix with a separate FIFO buffer at each output trunk. In the second part of this paper some examples are provided of how to apply the results of these studies to the future broadband ISDN which is intended to transmit services with very high bit rates (e.g. 135 Mb/s) as well as services with very low bit rates (e.g. 64 kb/s).     

Experimentation on asynchronous switching techniques for broadband ISDN

This paper deals with a proposed implementation exploiting the new asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) multiplexing and switching techniques. In particular, the basic architectural and functional choices are outlined and various aspects are examined regarding the implementation of a switching arrangement using ATM switching techniques, giving some indication about its hardware and software architecture and the foreseeable system performance.     

International standards for the broadband ISDN user-network interface

Recently, a series of international standards on broadband ISDN were approved in CCITT Study Group XVIII. These standards establish fundamental details on transmission, multiplexing and switching for broadband aspects of ISDN. This article reports on the current definition of the BISDN user-network interface. The UNI reference configuration, physical medium, rates, structure, ATM functions, and operations and maintenance functions are addressed with consideration given to open issues and the direction of future standards activities. Objectives for the UNI capabilities have generally been met with the current CCITT specifications. Some of the UNI physical layer ‘options’, however, potentially impose networking cost penalties.     

Narrowband and broadband ISDN CPE directions

Noting that ISDN customer premises equipment (CPE) is critical to the successful deployment of ISDN whatever the bandwidth, the author examines the market for narrowband and wideband integrated services digital network (NISDN and BISDN) CPE. He establishes the basic requirements for NISDN terminals and discusses terminal adaptors, digital telephone sets, screen-based telephony, workstations, customer premises networks, and CPE maintenance and upgrades. He examines the BISDN market and discusses the features and architecture of the terminals     

A broadband central office for ATM

Recently, a growing interest has been shown towards fast packet switching, ATD (asynchronous time division), or the more general term ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) in a number of companies and organizations such as CCITT and RACE. In Belgium a broadband experiment is planned using this technique. This paper focuses its attention on the central office (switching exchange). This exchange is a multistage network constructed with independent switching elements based on the self-routing principle. The load control in the exchange is provided by a static load control mechanism applied to the logical connections granted on these links. Simulation results show that this load control mechanism can work perfectly if used in the proper environment.     

A promising application for broadband ISDN: Hypermedia teleconference

The optimum BISDN teleconference service for business, called hypermedia teleconference, is designed based on research into typical business activities and ATM, the most promising BISDN architecture. Service characteristics are determined by analysing the daily work practices of a large set of businessmen. It is shown that communication tasks occupy 44 per cent of the working day. The analysis further shows that some 60 per cent of all communication tasks could be performed through an advanced digital teleconference service. Hypermedia teleconference is designed to satisfy the needs of business through personal communication terminals and ATM public networks. The terminals effectively allocate the BISDN's high-speed transmission capability between a number of subchannels that realize distributed multipoint connection links and multimedia paths. The terminals use a new variable-bit-rate ATM codec created to realize high quality video. Users can easily create full featured teleconferences without a centralized connection facility. Terminals allow the synergistic combination of video, voice, telewriting, telepointing and document transmission services.     

Intelligent traffic control for ATM broadband networks

Performance results prove that a neural networks approach achieves better results, simpler and faster, than algorithmic approaches. The focus of this paper is to shed light on how neural networks (NNs) can be used to solve many of the serious problems encountered in the development of a coherent traffic control strategy in ATM networks. The main philosophy that favors neural networks over conventional programming approaches is their learning and adaptive capabilities, which can be utilized to construct adaptive (and computationally intelligent) algorithms for allocation of resources (e.g., bandwidth, buffers), thus providing highly effective tools for congestion control     

Protocol architectures for satellite ATM broadband networks

The latest developments and experimentation in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology show that ATM will be a candidate transport mechanism in many private and public multimedia networks. Furthermore, the interest in satellite ATM systems has grown considerably because they can rapidly and economically extend the boundaries of any terrestrial network. Currently, there is a huge increase in the demand for satellite communications operating at the Ka-frequency bands; several different systems have been proposed and are under development worldwide. Two main scenarios for satellite access network protocols are presented in this article. The first one uses ATM cell encapsulation and satellite-specific protocols for establishing and managing a connection, whereas the second one provides a highly integrated solution with the ATM protocol stack and defines a new satellite ATM (S-ATM) protocol layer