The Flow Detection Protocol Design in MultiProtocol Over ATM

摘要

A key to ATM's success and Internet's further success will be the ability to allow for interoperation between the existing network technologies and ATM. MPOA(MultiProtocol Over ATM), which is presented and standardized by ATM Forum in July 1997, is an efficient solutions to the interoperation between ATM and the existing networks. The goal of MPOA is the efficient transfer of inter-subnet unicast data in a LANE(LAN Emulation) environment. The edge-device in the network forwards inter-subnet packets to router through a default path at first. When it recognizes that the flow could benefit from a shortcut that bypasses the routed path, it uses a protocol to establish a shortcut to the destination. If a shortcut is available, the edge-device sets up a shortcut virtual channel, and forwards packets to the destination over the shortcut path. However, MPOA specification has not defined the protocol of flow detection ( switching path from the default one to the shortcut one), it is for further study. Actually, the path swithing protocol, i.e., how to determinate whether the flow will benifit from the shortcut path, is a key factor determinating the efficiency of MPOA. In this paper, we present three kinds of solutions to the flow detection protocol.