AAL - ATM Adaptation Layer

Providing the glue to support the full range of ATM services.

With a promise to support a full range of applications through a core broadband backbone, ATM has caught the imagination of a wide spectrum of users. To deliver on this promise, the ATM Forum and its participants have crafted a protocol layer flexible enough to provide the mechanisms needed to adapt the cell transmissions into the necessary higher level behaviors. ATM has been designed to support applications including broadband ISDN, carrying multiple synchronous information channels, as a transfer mechanism for frame-relay and Switched Multi-Megabit Data Service (SMDS) applications, and finally as a link-transport mechanism for Local Area Networks. Each of these types of interfaces requires special mapping services to operate over the ATM cell structure. The AAL provides these mappings.

AAL protocols have been defined to support five classes of service:

These classes of service are mapped to the AAL protocols 0 through 5, referred to as AAL0, AAL1, etc. Figure 1 shows the relationship of the AAL, its major components with the remainder of the ATM protocol stack. Residing above the ATM layer, the AAL protocol elements transfer their information over one or more ATM cells.


Figure 1 - AAL Service Classes & AAL Types

Figure 2 shows the internal components of the AAL. The services provided by each of these components is as follows:

As the information is transferred through each of these layers it takes on a different format. The Service Data Units (SDU) is the representation of data between two service layers; for example, the ATM SDU is presented to the SAR layer for AAL processing. The Interface Data Unit (IDU) is a subcomponent of the SDU; one or more IDUs can contribute to a single SDU. Finally, the familiar term Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is used to represent data between a sublayer and its supporting sublayer. With these options, the way information is named can become confusing.


Figure 2 - AAL Sublayers

AAL-0 NULL AAL

AAL is the simplest and least useful of the AAL service classes is AAL-0. This class of service provides a direct interface into the ATM layer by users. It has been included in the standard to permit equipment designers to disregard the AAL in its entirety. While some had envisioned AAL-0 to useful in supporting control and service messaging, it lacks the guaranteed delivery mechanisms that are critical to many network control functions. For proprietary systems this can be useful. For systems that must operate in open environments, with equipment from multiple vendors, this "feature" should probably be avoided. It doesn't provide much in the way of an aid to interoperability.

AAL-1 Supports Class A Constant Bit Rate Traffic

In support of synchronous networking, AAL-1 provides a constant rate bit-stream between the two ends of an ATM connection. The data stream is locked to a fixed timing reference. While providing steady rate transfer is a relatively simple matter over a single synchronous interface, the asynchronous nature of ATM provides a significant challenge. Variations in a network's ability to deliver ATM traffic can result in significant jitter that impedes orderly reassembly of the synchronous traffic stream. Figure 3 shows the format of the AAL-1

SAR-PDU, that is sent over a single ATM cell. AAL-1 PDU fields include the Sequence Number that consists of a three-bit repeating sequence number, and a "CS-indication" bit, a 4-bit Sequence Number Protection (SNP) field that protects against sequence number errors, and a 47-octet payload. Typically, this payload field is intended to be filled, however, it can be partially used based on prenegotiated operation.


Figure 3 - AAL-1 Cell Format

Some of the most interesting aspects of AAL-1 are involved in clock recovery. Send too much information and data must be dropped. Send too little (too slow), and information must be padded. Two general approaches to resolving these issues have been proposed, Synchronous Residual Time Stamp where the clocks on both ends of a network connection are synchronized, and Adaptive Clock, in which the receiver adjusts the speed of its clock on the basis of the amount of information available in its receive buffers.

AAL-2 Variable Rate Synchronous Service

AAL-2 is based on the assumption that some forms of isochronous information can be represented in a multiple data rate format. For example, the rate of some video compression techniques can vary on the basis of the complexity and rate of change of moving images. While this portion of the standard has been highlighted, it is absent from the published standards.

AAL-3/4 End-To-End Data Transport

Based on the SMDS standard, AAL-3/4 provides data transport services for both connection and connectionless data. These services correspond to Class C and Class D data. Unlike AAL-0 and AAL-1, AAL-3/4 includes a range of service options. Information is transferred in either message or streaming mode. Optional delivery assurance techniques include discarding faulty SDUs, end-to-end data recovery, and delivery of all SDUs regardless of their integrity. Assured transmission through retransmission is discussed in the standards, but is not fully specified. Non-assured transmission is supported in the standard, with options to deliver or discard faulty SDUs. Typically, it is most useful to discard faulty SDUs. Delivery of unreliable information is typically something to avoid. Several logical AAL connections can be multiplexed over a single ATM Virtual Circuit (VC). Finally, AAL-3/4 provides a capability to support multipoint delivery of information from a single source.

To support this set of services, the AAL-3/4 architecture is considerably more involved than the other AAL protocols. Active processing is performed by both the CPCS and SAR layers to provide additional functions. Processing steps include receipt of the User data frame to AAL, CPCS formatting of the AAL-PDU for transmission to the destination, followed by forwarding of the CPCS-PDU to the SAR layer for segmentation into a set of 44-byte PDUs for transmission (with 3 octets of SAR control information) over the ATM layer. On receipt of the ATM PDU, the opposite process ensues, with the SAR reassembling the stream of SAR-PDUs into a single CPCS-PDU, and delivering the received CPCS-PDU to the CPCS for final processing and delivery of information to the user. A summary of these processes follows.

The AAL-3/4 CPCS is responsible for managing the integrity of AAL-3/4 information. It additionally pads the information data-block size to an even multiple of 4 octets, simplifying protocol processing by CPUs such as the Motorola 680x0 series that are popular in telecommunications systems. Figure 4 shows the format of the CPCS-PDU. The fields of the PDU and their use are:


Figure 4 - AAL-3/4 CPCS PDU Format

The Segmentation and Reassembly Sublayer manages the fragmentation and reassembly of the AAL-3/4 CPCS-PDUs into payload information that can be carried by the ATM cells. The format of the SAR-PDU is shown in Figure 5. The SAR-PDU fields and there application are as follows:


Figure 5 - SAR-PDU Format

 

AAL-5 Simple Data Transfer

While the AAL-3/4 provides a rich set of services, it does so at the expense of additional protocol overhead and processing. AAL-5, originally coined the Simple and Efficient Adaptation Layer (SEAL) was designed to provide similar services at lower overhead. This AAL takes advantage of the ATM End of Message (EOM) flag to signal the end of a single message. Significant overhead is elimated by removing the SAR header and trailer. Processing involves construction of a CPCS-PDU (shown in Figure 6) that can carry between 1 and 65535 octets, that is segmented into a series of 48 octet SAR-PDUs for ATM transmission.


Figure 6 - AAL-5 CPCS-PDU

Components of the AAL-5 CPCS-PDU are:

Through services provided by the AAL protocols, user applications are able to realize the full scope of services promised by ATM.