INTRODUCTION

Act of forwarding packets from source to destination using

routers. Routers:
Intermediate network elements.
Devices that use the destination address carried in the packet header

to appropriately route packets to their respective destinations. Routing tables are maintained containing a list of possible destinations and the next-hop for each possible destination.

Requirements: OPTIMALITY: Round found must be best in terms of a given metric e.g. no. of hops. REDUCING EXCHANGE OF ROUTING INFORMATION (management overheads):So that more bandwidth is available for carrying user traffic. REDUCING PROCESSING LOAD (processing routing info) on routers: So that more power is available to forward packets.

 SCALABILITY: Ease with which routing protocol can be extended to

cover a large network area. ROBUSTNESS: Ability of a routing protocol to tackle unforeseen or unusual circumstances.

In order to provide means to route signalling messages, NNI

signalling used. Network-to-network signaling consists of protocols that implement signaling between ATM switches. There are two NNI signalling protocols currently used:
IISP PNNI

Classification of Routing
Nature-wise-static or dynamic
Control-wise-distributed or centralized routing Scope-wise-intra domain or inter-domain routing Number-wise-unicast routing or multicast routing

Concepts for routing

Summarization-process of using single network prefiz

to represent a collection of nodes Hierarchy-hierarchical and summarized flow of routing. Route computation-link state method and distance vector method Path selection-Hop-by-hop routing and source routing Parameterization-refers to various parameters like hop count, bandwidth and delay.

 Phase 0 Protocol precedes Phase 1 i.e. PNNI protocol.

INTERIM INTER-SWITCH PROTOCOL(IISP)

Includes simple hop-to-hop routing based on AESA addresses. Static routing tables have to be manually created and maintained.

Difficult to manage and administer and it limits network scalability.

IISP is used for small private ATM networks with a small number of switches. The protocol is employed mainly to fill the gap before PNNI was available.

It was made to leverage deployment of ATM networks.

signaling protocol for interswitch communication. IISP was an interim measure designed to allow peer switches to interconnect using UNI-based signaling

based on the User-Network Interface (UNI) specification prior to implementation of the NetworkNetwork Interface (NNI) signaling protocol upon which PNNI is based. Although less powerful and complex than PNNI, IISP is still used today to allow backward compatibility with switches not yet implementing ATM Forum-compliant PNNI. IISP can also be used to isolate distribution of PNNI information in specific network design scenarios.

 Signaling requests are routed between switches using configured

address prefix tables within each switch. These tables are configured with the address prefixes that are reachable through each port on the switch. When a signaling request is received by a switch, the switch checks the destination ATM address against the prefix table and notes the port with the longest prefix match. It then forwards the signaling request across that port using UNI procedures. Routing using IISP requires manual configuration of the routing tables. For a small number of paths this is a relatively simple task, but in a large network the configuration can be time-consuming and prone to errors. The tables have to be configured at each of the switches individually

 IISP Advantages: Simple to deploy and troubleshoot in small networks Widely supported by many vendors Can be used to connect private networks running different, proprietary implementations of PNNI IISP-Limitations: Statically configured routes - you must manually configure each route through the network. Not very scalable, due to manual configuration of address tables Hop-by-hop route computation - IISP uses hop-by-hop routing, where each ATM switch that

receives the connection setup message selects the next outgoing interface to which to forward the setup message. This selection is based on the mapping of destination addresses (in a routing table) to outgoing interfaces. Limited QoS support - Statically configured routes do not permit the flexibility in route selection that is required to meet QoS requirements. QoS can be supported only on a single link basis. No crankback - The ability to crank back and recompute a route when congestion or failure occurs is not inherent in IISP. However, redundant or alternate paths can be configured.

PNNI PROTOCOL
Refers to Private Network-to-Network Interface (used

between two ATM networks). Refers to Private Network-Node Interface (used for interface specification between two ATM switches/nodes) Hierarchical, dynamic, link-state routing protocol. Designed to support large scale ATM networks. Contains procedures to dynamically establish, maintain and clear connections. Highly complex.

PNNI

UNI
PNNI

UNI

PNNI

ATM Network

ATM Network

PNNI INTERFACE

 PNNI has two major parts: PNNI routing specification, and PNNI signaling specification PNNI routing specification, Dynamically gathers the information about the status and the topology of the network. Defines the procedures for distributing topology information between switches. Defines the mechanism of using this topology information for computing optimal routes for each particular connection establishment. Also details guidelines for QoS-based routing and CAC. PNNI signalling specification, Defines message flows for P2P and P2MP signalling. Similar to UNI signaling, it has similar messages and initiates at the calling end station. Specifies means for source routing and crankback.

Important features:

Hierarchical routing:

For large or growing networks, hierarchical PNNI uses a number of mechanisms that enable multilevel, flexible routing hierarchies. The ability to treat a group of switches as a single logical group node (LGN) significantly improves scalability.

Link-state routing: Follow link-state method to exchange topological information and to compute optimal routes.

Support for QoS-based routing:

PNNI selects routes through the network based on the administrative weight and other QoS parameters, such as

the available cell rate (AvCR), maximum cell transfer delay (MCTD), peak-to-peak cell delay variation (CDV), and cell loss ratio (CLR). PNNI guarantees a route that meets or exceeds the criteria of all specified QoS parameters. Scalability: Designed to be Highly scalable protocol (adding tens of thousands of nodes makes no difference).Intended to satisfy goal of a global ATM network. Connection-oriented communication with guaranteed bandwidth Adaptation to changing network topology. Flexibility: (Allows internetworking)

Important features (contd):

Defaults to flat network topology: For a flat network topology, single-level PNNI offers the advantage of simple plug-and-play network configuration. The ATM switch router is auto configured for single-level PNNI. Source routing: As against hop-by-hop routing, uses source routing. In a PNNI routing domain, the source ATM switch computes hierarchically complete routes for connection setups. This route information is included in the call setup signaling message. Source routing provides the capability to support QoS requirements and is guaranteed to be loop free. Topology state routing protocol PNNI determines the state and resource status of the network topology that is distributed using the flooding mechanism. Automatic configuration and topology discovery Using the switch default ATM address, hierarchy configuration, and ILMI address autoconfiguration, PNNI automatically determines the addresses and links in the ATM network. Dynamic routing PNNI is dynamic because it learns the network topology and reachability information and automatically adapts to network changes by advertising topology state information.