ILMI - Interim Local Management Interface

The ILMI was developed by the ATM Forum to allow UNI management information to be exchanged between UNI Management Entities (UMEs) within UNI peers. UNI peers, in this context, are:


                           Private
                             UNI
            ATM End-System<---|--->Private ATM switch


                            Public
                             UNI
            ATM End-System<---|--->Public ATM Switch

                            Public
                             UNI
        Private ATM Switch<---|--->Public ATM Switch

ILMI information is exchanged over a direct encapsulation of SNMP version 1 (RFC 1157) over AAL5 (required) and, optionally, over AAL 3/4 using a well-known VPI/VCI value (VPI=0, VCI=16). Management information related to the Physical Layer, ATM Layer, Virtual Path Connections, Virtual Channel Connections, Address Registration, as well as ATM Layer Statistics, is represented in a standard MIB structure called the ATM UNI ILMI MIB.

As the name implies, the ATM Forum developed this capability as an interim standard until the CCITT and ANSI standards for local management procedures in the M-plane (Management Plane of the B-ISDN Reference Model) are finalized.

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