Process for determining a target ATM address

Details Process for determining a target ATM address Process for determining a target ATM address

1997-12-22

1999-10-26

Harrell, Robert B.

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Remote data accessing

Using interconnected networks

370404, 370396, G06F 1300, H04L 1246

Patent

active

059744529

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to a method for the determination of a destination ATM address as reply to an address resolution inquiry output by a source LAN emulation client of a first ELAN when the destination MAC address to be resolved is allocated to at least one LAN emulation client of a second ELAN and the first as well as the second ELAN are connected to a higher-ranking network.
ATM thereby denotes "Asynchronous Transfer Mode", i.e. asynchronous data or, respectively, information transmission methods. ELAN means an emulated LAN as described, in particular, in the specification 94-0035R9, "LAN Emulation Over ATM: Version 1.0" of the LAN Emulation SWG Drafting Group of the ATM Forum of Jan. 6, 1995, Bill Ellington, editor. This is thereby an approach of the ATM Forum to the migration of current LANs to ATM networks. LANs are datagram-oriented local networks that are described in, among other references, the article by David D. Clark, Kenneth D. Progran and David P. Reed, "An Introduction to Local Area Networks" in Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 66, No. 11, November 1978, pages 1497 through 1517. LANs are also described in ISO/IEC TR 8802-1, "Overview of LAN-Standards". LANs offer a connectionless service, what is referred to as the MAC service. MAC thereby stands for "Media Access Control". By contrast to this connectionless service, ATM technology is connection-oriented. When the protocols of the higher layers developed for LANs are to be used in emulated LANs on the basis of an ATM network, the properties of the connectionless MAC service must be produced in this ATM network. The LAN emulation according to the aforementioned specification realizes the MAC service in the local ATM network and thus defines a single emulated LAN, called ELAN below. The standard LAN protocols such as LLC, TCP/IP, SPX/IPX or TP/CLNP can be used in this ELAN.
The LAN emulation supports the two most frequently employed LAN standards, namely Ethernet according to IEEE 802.3 and Token Ring according to IEEE 802.5, whereby three frame lengths are supported given token ring. The addressing of every LAN station ensues on the basis of a destination MAC address that is unambiguous worldwide. For the transmission of information between LANs, the address is handed over from a high layer are. For the description of the information path, token ring LANs employ what are referred to as route descriptors in the frame header in addition to MAC addresses. The frame can be conveyed to the destination within token ring LANs on the basis of such a descriptor.
Only MAC addresses shall be mentioned below.
For emulation of an LAN in an ATM network, the LAN emulation must, among other things, resolve destination MAC address into destination ATM addresses, realize multicast and broadcast, i.e. a distribution of information to as plurality of or to all subscribers, as well as assure the transmission of LAN emulation frames in the proper sequence. The LAN emulation has a client-server configuration. The client side is called LAN emulation client LEC and the server side is called LAN emulation service. The LAN emulation service is composed of LAN emulation server LES, broadcast-and-unknown server BUS and LAN emulation configuration server LECS. The LAN emulation client receives the destination MAC address from a higher-ranking layer, for example the LLC layer, and must find the corresponding ATM address, in order to subsequently initiate the setup of a direct ATM connection to the destination by signaling. The signaling can thereby ensue, for example, according to the ITU-T Recommendation Q.2831/Q.2971. An LAN emulation client can be realized in the software or in the hardware of the stations that participate in the LAN emulation.
An LAN emulation server LES maintains a table with all MAC addresses that are reported in the emulated LAN, for example in the framework of a configuration, and with the corresponding ATM addresses. The communication between the LAN emulation clients and the LAN emulation client ensues according to

REFERENCES:
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patent: 5892912 (1999-04-01), Suzuki et al.
IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 33, No. 5, May 1995, Truong et al, "LAN Emulation on an ATM Network," pp. 70-85.
IEEE Communications Magazine, Aug. 1994, H. Jonathan Chao et al, "IP on ATM Local Area Networks," pp. 52-59.
IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 32, No. 3, Mar. 1994, Peter Newman, "ATM Local Area Networks," pp. 86-98.
Globecom, Dec. 6, 1992, Crocetti et al, "Multicast in SMDS over an ATM Network," pp. 1062-1066.

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