Ralf Günther

A Software Architecture for Control and Management of Distributed ATM Switching

Distributed switching will become a key feature for flexible and inexpensive workgroup switches as well as for dedicated high performance networking solutions. The Philips Research Laboratories in Aachen have demonstrated the feasibility of distributed ATM switching by developing a ring-based ATM switch. After solving the hardware related problems we are now focusing our efforts on the design of a distributed software platform for switch control and management purposes.

Open Switching for ATM Networks

This contribution discusses the way how Open Switching can be supported in ATM networks. First the elements of an ATM system that are relevant for call control and call handling are described. Then we evaluate which of the call control interfaces should be realized by which parts of the system, especially which signalling aspects are relevant for the software architecture on network side. Finally we propose a concept for the integration of external call control as part of the network control architecture. The paper aims at a switch control architecture that facilitates for providing advanced applications in ATM networks by external call control. The definition of standardized protocols and the design of Open Switching applications themselves are out of the scope of our work.