IP over ATM: A Framework Document

Abstract

The discussions of the IP over ATM working group over the last several years have produced a diverse set of proposals, some of which are no longer under active consideration. A categorization is provided for the purpose of focusing discussion on the various proposals for IP over ATM deemed of primary interest by the IP over ATM working group. The intent of this framework is to help clarify the differences between proposals and identify common features in order to promote convergence to a smaller and more mutually compatible set of standards. In summary, it is hoped that this document, in classifying ATM approaches and issues will help to focus the IP over ATM working group's direction.

Integration of Real-time Services in an IP-ATM Network Architecture

“…The current IP over ATM standards assume no real-time IP protocols. It is the purpose of this RFC to clearly delineate what the issues are in integrating real-time services in an IP-over-ATM network [10,15,19,20,21].…”

NHRP Protocol Applicability Statement

“…Therefore, NHRP "shortens" the routed path. NHRP (as defined in [1]) is not sufficient to suppress persistent forwarding loops when used for router-router communication if the underlying routing protocol looses information critical to loop suppression [9]. Work is in progress [10] to augment NHRP to enable its use for the router-router communication without persistent forwarding loops.…”

The transport layer

“…15 Because of AAL's lack of reliable service and the popularity of TCP/IP, there exists a protocol stack with TCP over IP over AAL over ATM. This stack essentially puts a transport layer over a network layer over a transport layer over a network layer to provide reliable data transfer in a mixed TCP/IP -ATM environment [Cole et al 1996].…”