Cell Relay Archive

["Patrick Lam" <patrickl@ece.ubc.ca>]

Hi all:

I took a project that has to design an ATM switch.  I understand the
buffering, scheduling and traffic control stuff.  What's bothering me is how
the routing table work!

Does the routing table contain only incoming VPI/VCI, outgoing VPI/VCI and
output port?

When a signaling cell comes in with a particular VPI/VCI (or should we use
VPCI/VCI in this case?), how does the switch calculate the outgoing VPI/VCI
for that cell for the routing table?  What is the calculation based on?
Would that be based on the ATM address contained in the CPS layer?

As far as I know, after a VC has been setup, all cells containning the same
VCI will be switched according to this VC.  So are these cells (with the
same VCI) going to be switched to the same VCs (in other words, will they
carry the same VCI) along the whole connection (with same VPCI)?

Also, how often does the routing table update itself?  Does it have to
update itself whenever a VC is setup or torn down?

Can someone point me to a good starting point (a book, or a site) for ATM
switch designs?

Any answers to any of the above questions will be very appreciated.

Thanks very much in advance.

Patrick.