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In order to make it possible to continue using existing LAN application

sotware, while taking adantage o the increased bandwidth o A1M
transmission, standards hae been deeloped to allow the running o LAN
layer protocols oer A1M. LAN Lmulation ,LANL, is one such method,
enabling the replacement o 10 Mbps Lthernet or 4,16 Mbps 1oken Ring
LANs with dedicated A1M links. It also allows the integration o A1M
networks with legacy LAN networks. 1his sotware protocol running oer
A1M equipment oers two major eatures:
1he ability to run all existing LAN applications oer A1M without
change. 1he immediate beneit is that it is not necessary to reinest in
sotware applications.
1he ability to interconnect A1M equipment and networks to existing
LANs, and also the ability to link logically separate LANs ia one A1M
backbone. 1he beneit is that A1M equipment may be introduced only
where it is needed.
1he unction o LANL is to emulate a LAN ,either ILLL 802.3 Lthernet or
802.5 1oken Ring, on top o an A1M network. Basically, the LANL
protocol deines a serice interace or higher layer protocols which is
354 LAN Emu|ation
identical to that o existing LANs. Data is sent across the A1M network
encapsulated in the appropriate LAN MAC packet ormat. 1hus, the LANL
protocols make an A1M network look and act like a LAN, only much aster.
,A1M lorum Standards ersion 1.0 or LAN emulation,
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LAN Emu|ation Components
1here are seeral participants in the LAN emulation ,LL, protocol
operation: the LAN Lmulation Client ,LLC,, the LAN Lmulation Serer
,LLS,, the LAN Lmulation Coniguration Serer ,LLCS,, and the Broadcast
and Unknown Serer ,BUS,. Lach o these is described below.
LAN Emu|ation C|ient (LEC)
1he LLC is the user requiring LAN emulation serices. 1ypically, it is the
workstation running the application or the A1M bridge which connects the
A1M network with the legacy LAN. 1here can be many LAN Lmulation
Clients in an emulated LAN.
LAN Emu|ation Server (LES)
1he LLS implements address registration ,allowing stations to register their
MAC and A1M addresses, and proides address resolution ,answers ARP,
Address Resolution Protocol, requests by conerting between MAC and
A1M addresses,. Lach emulated LAN can hae only one LLS. Howeer, a
physical LAN can sere seeral emulated LANs, each with its own LLS.
LAN Emu|ation Confiuration Server (LECS)
1he LLCS proides coniguration inormation, including the address o the
LLS, the type o emulated LAN and the maximum rame size. Lach
network can only hae one LLCS.
8roadcast/Unknown Server (8US)
1he BUS perorms all broadcasts and multicasts. lrames are sent through
the BUS in two instances:
\hen the inormation is to be transerred ,broadcast, to all stations.
\hen a source LLC has sent an ARP to the LLS, and does not wish to
wait or a response beore starting the data transer to the destination
LLC. In this case, the source LLC transmits the inormation to the BUS,
which in turn loods the entire network.
35 LAN Emu|ation
Lach emulated LAN can hae only one BUS. Howeer, a physical LAN can
sere seeral emulated LANs, each with its own BUS.
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\hile the A1M lorum speciies that there are three separate ORJLFDO
components to the LAN Lmulation serice ,the LLS, LLCS and BUS,, it
deliberately does not speciy whether they are SK\VLFDOO\ separate or united.
1his decision is let to the endors.
Many endors merge the LLS, LLCS and BUS into a single physical unit.
1here hae been two popular choices where to place this unit:
1. Adding the LL serice unctionality into switches.
2. Proiding an external station which connects up to any switch and
proides LL serices.
Data Transfer 357
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1here are seeral stages pertaining to connection establishment oer an
emulated LAN. 1hey are described in this section rom the LLC point o
iew.
LAN emulation uses the signalling protocol to establish transient
connections. Lach LLC has a unique A1M address ,in one o the address
ormats supported by A1M lorum`s UNI 3.0 signalling,. In the SL1UP
message, the Broadband Low-Layer Inormation ,B-LLI, element is used to
identiy LAN emulation connections.
Initially, the protocol ID ,PID, in the B-LLI element is ISO,ILC 1R,95.
1here are seeral types o supported PIDs:
Control connections.
802.3 data connections.
802.5 data connections.
802.3 multicast orward connections.
802.5 multicast orward connections.
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In the initialization phase, the LLC must identiy the type o emulated LAN
that it is joining and determine the addresses o the LLCS and LLS.
1o determine the A1M address o the LLCS, the LLC perorms the
ollowing:
1. Attempts to extract this address rom the switch with the use o ILMI. I
successul, the LLC attempts to connect to that address.
2. I unsuccessul, uses a well-known A1M address to try and establish the
SVC.
3. I unsuccessul, uses a PVC at VPI~0, VCI~1 to establish the
connection.
4. I still unsuccessul, tries to contact the LLS.
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Once a connection to the LLCS has been established, the ollowing
inormation is exchanged between the LLC and the LLCS:
358 LAN Emu|ation
1he LLC sends its A1M address, its MAC address and the requested LAN
types and rame sizes.
1he LLCS returns the LLS address and the LAN type and rame size to use.
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In this phase, the LLC attempts to join the emulated LAN. 1o do this it:
Creates a control direct bi-directional VCC with the LLS.
1ransmits a Join Request ,A1M address, LAN inormation, Proxy
indication, optional MAC address,.
Possibly accepts a Control Distribute VCC beore a Join Request is
receied.
1his operation may time out or ail. An example o joining an emulated
LAN is gien below.
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1he BUS takes care o processing broadcast requests rom a LLC to other
LAN emulation clients. 1o do this, it must be aware o all A1M stations on
the line. 1hus, when each LLC comes up, it registers at the BUS. 1he LLC
must:
Register any MAC addresses.
Resole the 0xllllllllllll MAC address ,broadcast address, to get
the A1M address o the BUS.
Data Transfer 359
Create a unidirectional multicast send VCC to the BUS. 1his VCC will
be used when the LLC desires to perorm a broadcast.
Accept a unidirectional multicast orward VCC rom the BUS. 1his is
the VCC that the BUS will use when perorming broadcasts to the LLC.
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\hen data moement is required, the top-leel application sends the drier
the inormation with the desired MAC address. 1he LAN emulation drier
can then proceed with the ollowing steps:
Veriy that the internal cache contains the association between the MAC
address and the A1M address.
I not, inquire o the LLS.
\hile waiting or a response, the LLC may transmit rames using the
BUS.
Once a response has been receied, a direct connection is established
using the signalling protocol. 1he association o the A1M address and
the MAC address are added to the cache.
Connections are deleted based on inactiity.
30 LAN Emu|ation
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LAN emulation is implemented in all equipment participating in the
emulated LAN, namely workstations, switches, network interace cards,
bridges, etc. 1he ollowing diagram illustrates the LAN emulation protocol
stack.
ATM Host ATM Switch ATM-LAN Bridge LAN Host
Existing
applications
Existing
applications
Bridging
NDIS/ODI driver
interface
NDIS/ODI driver
interface
LE LE MAC MAC
AAL5 AAL5
ATM ATM ATM
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
Ser ver ATM Swi t ch
Br i dge
Wor kst at i on
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1he end-points o the connection ,the serer and the workstation, run the
same applications oer an NDIS,ODI drier ,in this example,. It is the
underlying layers that are dierent: the serer runs LAN Lmulation oer
AAL5 and the workstation runs Lthernet. 1he upper-layer application
remains unchanged, it does not hae to realize that A1M is running
underneath. 1he bridge has both technologies: a LAN port connects to the
legacy LAN and an A1M port connects to the newer A1M network. 1he
switch continues to run its normal stack, switches cells and creates
connections.
LAN Emu|ation Packet Formats 31
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LAN emulation proides or two possible data packet ormats: Lthernet and
1oken Ring. 1he LAN emulation data rames presere all the inormation
contained in the original 802.3 or 802.5 rames, but add a 2-byte LLC ID
,the source ID,, which is unique to each LLC. 1he irst ormat, based on
Lthernet ILLL 802.3, is shown below.
Octet
0 LE header (LEC ID) Destination MAC address
4 Destination MAC address
8 Source MAC address
12 Source MAC address Type/length
16-n Information
tbervet 02. acet forvat
1he second packet ormat, based on ILLL 802.5 1oken Ring, is shown
below.
Octet 16 24 32 bits
0 LE header (LEC ID) AC pad FC
4 Destination MAC address
8 Destination MAC address Source MAC address
12 Source MAC address
16-46
Routing information field
46-n Information
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1he original 802.3 or 802.5 rame is maintained since it may be needed at
some nodes. lor example, an A1M-to-Lthernet bridge will receie LAN
32 LAN Emu|ation
emulation Lthernet rames rom the A1M side, strip o the irst two bytes,
and send the Lthernet rame on to the Lthernet side.
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1he ormat o all LAN emulation control rames, except or RLAD\_IND
and RLAD\_QULR\, is shown below.
Octet
0 Marker = FF00 Protocol = 01 Version = 01
4 Op-Code Status
8 Transaction ID
12 Requester-LEC ID Flags
16 Source-LAN-destination
24 Target-LAN-destination
32 Source-ATM-address
52 LAN Type Maximum frame
size
Number TLVS ELAN name-size
56 Target-ATM-address
76 ELAN-name
108 TLVS begin
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Control rame type. Values may be:
0001 LL_CONlIGURL_RLQULS1.
0101 LL_CONlIGURL_RLSPONSL.
0002 LL_JOIN_RLQULS1.
0102 LL_JOIN_RLSPONSL.
0003 RLAD\_QULR\.
0103 RLAD\_IND.
0004 LL_RLGIS1LR_RLQULS1.
0104 LL_RLGIS1LR_RLSPONSL.
0005 LL_UNRLGIS1LR_RLQULS1.
0105 LL_UNRLGIS1LR_RLSPONSLS.
0006 LL_ARP_RLQULS1.
0106 LL_ARP_RLSPONSL.
000 LL_lLUSH_RLQULS1.
010 LL_lLUSH_RLSPONSL.
0008 LL_NARP_RLQULS1.
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0108 Undeined.
0009 LL_1OPOLOG\_RLQULS1.
0109 Undeined.
Transaction ID
Arbitrary alue supplied by the requester and returned by the responder to
allow the receier to discriminate between dierent responses.
Requester LEC ID
LLC ID o LAN emulation client sending the request ,0000 i unknown,.
F|as
Bit lags:
0001 Remote Address used with LL_ARP_RLSPONSL.
0080 Proxy llag used with LL_JOIN_RLQULS1.
0100 1opology change used with LL_1OPOLOG\_RLQULS1.
1he meaning o the remaining ields depends on the Op-Code alue.
LUNI 2.0
LAN Lmulation LLC-multiplexed data and control rames hae the
ollowing additional ields which appear beore the ields in the data and
control rames described aboe:
byte: 0 LLC-XAA LLC-XAA LLC-X03 OUI-X00
4 OUI-XA0 OUI-X3E Frame Type
8 ELAN ID
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1he LUNI 2.0 standard deines the ollowing additional llags or Control
rames:
0002 V2 capable used with LL_CONlIG_RLQULS1 and
LL_JOIN_RLQULS1.
0004 Selectie multicast used with LL_JOIN_RLQULS1.
0008 V2 required used with LL_JOIN_RLSPONSL.
1he LUNI 2.0 standard deines the ollowing additional Op-Code alues or
Control rames:
000A LL_VLRIl\_RLQULS1.
010A LL_VLRIl\_RLSPONSL.
34 LAN Emu|ation