VPI EXPANSION METHOD FOR ABR MULTIPOINT-TO-POINT CONNECTION IN ATM NETWORK

摘要

PURPOSE: A VPI(Virtual Path Identifier) extension method for an ABR(Available Bit Rate) multipoint-to-point connection in an ATM network is provided to solve a problem of congestion control balance in an existing VC merging technique and the problem that many VPI/VCI tables are required in an existing VP merging technique. CONSTITUTION: The fourth exchange receives ATM cells, having an identical VPI value but different VCI values, from different sources through an ATM network(S1). The fourth exchange checks the MSB(Most Significant Bit) values of the VPI fields of the ATM cells and judges the connection type of the ATM cells(S2). In case that the MSB values of the VPI fields of the ATM cells is "0" which means that the connection type is a multipoint-to-point connection, the fourth exchange extracts the VPI value from each VPI field, extends each VPI value into a 16-bit value, and inserts each extended VPI value into each VCI field(S3). Then the fourth exchange extracts a VCI value from each VCI field, converts each VCI value into a 11-bit value using the multipoint-to-point VCI conversion information of the multipoint-to-point connection field of a VPI/VCI table, and inserts each converted VCI value into each VPI field(S4). Then the fourth exchange classifies the sources through the VCI values in the their respective VPI fields, executes cell interleaving at a merging point, and transmits the ATM cells to an identical destination source(S5).