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ATM-focused supplement to Packet Magazine
Volume 1 Number 2, Third Quarter 1995
A new release of the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS[tm]) software enables Cisco's Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) platforms to be used in building larger, easier-to-deploy ATM networks that support emerging technologies, such as virtual networking, videoconferencing, and multimedia. The new software features will enhance the Cisco LightStream[tm] 100 and LightStream 2020 ATM switches, as well as the Cisco 7000 series router's ATM Interface Processor (AIP).
New features for the LightStream 100 modular workgroup/campus ATM switch include Dynamic Interim Inter-Switch Signaling Protocol (IISP) and Interim Local Management Interface (ILMI), which enable the switch to set up connection paths and map addresses automatically, removing the burden from the network administrator. Also supported is point-to-multipoint signaling, which is used for broadcast applications.
New features for the LightStream 2020 enterprise ATM backbone switch include high-performance multicast service using point-to-multipoint connections; application-specific quality-of-service, which extends ATM bandwidth- allocation functions to Ethernet and FDDI networks; and T1/E1 circuit emulation, which permits the connection of private branch exchanges (PBXs), time-division multiplexers, and videoconferencing across an ATM network using constant bit-rate services.
New features for the Cisco 7000 AIP card include LAN Emulation (LANE) support, which allows higher-layer protocols and applications to run unmodified over ATM; point-to-multipoint signaling, which eliminates the need for individual circuits in broadcast applications; and support for Request for Comments (RFC) 1577, which maximizes IP transmission over ATM.
"Realizing ATM's full performance and bandwidth potential requires a highly sophisticated software infrastructure," says Larry Lang, Cisco's ATM Product Marketing Director. "This software must link ATM switches into a network that interoperates with existing LANs and WANs. The Cisco IOS software now provides that infrastructure across the entire CiscoFusion[tm] architecture for switched internetworks."
| Other News on the LightStream 2020 |
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| Cisco has recently announced a Frame Relay network node interface to allow the LightStream 2020 to connect to other vendors' Frame Relay switches. Additionally, Cisco announced an eight-port DS3/E3 card, which boosts the LightStream 2020's port density and provides increased performance to "line speed" (45 Mbps for DS3 or 34 Mbps for E3). |
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The forces behind the Technical University of Delft's choice of Cisco routing and switching included its desire to offer the most advanced opportunities in computer and network technology, a rapidly growing user base, more complex applications, and the university's requirement for an easy migration path to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). Paul Van Daalen, Manager of Marketing and Development at the Netherlands-based university's data processing center, says that Delft University Network (DUneT) was originally based on an Ethernet broadband backbone and was used largely for worldwide electronic mail, technical and scientific applications, financial management, stock control and administration, library information, and student administration. With the growth in the number of student users and the advent of client/server applications, it became clear that the university needed more network bandwidth than the original Ethernet backbone could provide.
"The culture within the university is such that we are not afraid of new technology, and the time had come for a routed network," says Van Daalen. Anticipating this development, the school had already implemented a logical system to provide IP addresses to its users. All that was required then was the selection of a routing technology vendor. The university needed a company that was large enough to have global reach, had experience with large and diverse internetworks, could support a large number of networking protocols, and provided a rational and cost-effective migration path to ATM. Only Cisco Systems met all of these conditions.
"Cisco is the market leader, which was important to us," says Van Daalen. "But the company was also able to route the protocols we already had installed, and Cisco was very serious about ATM applications. Cisco had an ATM interface for the Cisco 7000 router, and that's what really convinced us." The ability to migrate the backbone to ATM will give the university all the bandwidth it could need for the foreseeable future.
Before Cisco routers and switches were installed, the campus-wide network at TU Delft was difficult to use and administer. The university had given its various departments complete freedom to choose their computing and networking systems. The result was an example of the diversity that can make networking a challenge. In addition to multiple types of PCs, workstations, midrange systems, and mass-storage systems, DUneT has a variety of large servers. The university has implemented only two network interfaces (Ethernet and ATM), but it has six protocol stacks running on them: AppleTalk, IP, Novell IPX, DECnet, SNA, and XNS.
To round out the picture, TU Delft has a variegated applications environment that will soon become increasingly diverse. The university has joined forces with the Dutch PTT and other research institutions to explore the practical possibilities of ATM. These projects focus on the management of multimedia networks, including applications for desktop videoconferencing and remote education. Other applications include an ATM interface for the CD-i interactive CD standard and linking the university to SURFnet, the Dutch research network, with an ATM switch.
In 1993, TU Delft installed three Cisco 7000 routers comprising the new backbone. Each router serves about 10 Ethernet segments in various of the university's 40 buildings. One year later, with the introduction of the ATM interface for the Cisco 7000, the university ordered a Cisco LightStream[tm] 100 ATM switch to connect the three large routers with 155-Mbps ATM links. Since that time, TU Delft has purchased a fourth Cisco 7000 and a second LightStream 100 switch. These products have helped the university advance its control over a complex networking environment and continue its orderly migration toward the promise of ATM.
The ability to migrate its backbone to ATM will give the TU Delft network unlimited user possibilities.
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Next time you cruise down the information highway, stop at the US National Library of Medicine's home page on the World Wide Web and take a look at the world's first comprehensive, digitized human body -- the Visible Human. With US$1 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center has brought the study of human anatomy into the information age. And the Cisco LightStream[tm] 2020 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) enterprise switch was instrumental in getting it there.
Cisco's LightStream[tm] 2020 switching technology is at the center of the University of Colorado's internetworked architecture.
Through a process combining cryogenics, medical imaging, high-tech milling, and digital reconstruction, researchers at the university produced highly detailed anatomical 3-D representations of the human body. The result: 20 billion bytes of data that catalog every detail of the male human anatomy. The university's existing Ethernet network was incapable of supporting such a high-performance, bandwidth-intensive program; therefore, it needed new network technology -- a switched internetwork based on ATM. The university purchased a Cisco LightStream 2020 switch to anchor this new network. The LightStream 2020 provides the multiservice switching capabilities for ATM, Ethernet, and FDDI that are required to handle and transport huge amounts of data to the university's medical schools and hospitals.
"We support information technology for a very complex environment, encompassing over 4000 devices that are used by academia, research, health care, and administration," explains Jim Nemchak, Director of Network Services at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "The Visible Human was one of the first bandwidth-intensive projects to underscore our need for network technologies such as the LightStream 2020 switch, which can handle multimegabyte, high-speed file imaging and graphics data transfer."
In 1994, to accommodate the data explosion that was growing daily between multiple sites throughout the campus, Nemchak began migrating the network from a large LAN running Ethernet to a switched internetwork. The migration involved the collapse of the network's flat LAN into a centralized switching backbone. "Initially, we replaced the bridged Ethernet with switched Ethernet and FDDI as an interim solution," explains Nemchak. "Our goal, however, was to put ATM at the center of our campus network."
The Cisco LightStream 2020 switch was the ATM solution of choice because it provides the advantages of ATM while meeting the challenges of migration to a switched internetwork environment. The LightStream 2020's multiservice switching architecture, which works in concert with the network's existing routers, allows the university not only to protect its network investments but to extend functionality as well. "Our internetwork topology and protocols are a veritable `alphabet soup,'" notes Nemchak. "We wanted an ATM solution that could support multiple LAN protocols, interact with our existing interface technology, and really deliver on wire-speed throughput," he recalls.
"The LightStream product was the front-runner in its ability to support our network," adds Scott Johnson, Network Engineer for the Network Services group. "Throughput was imperative, and the LightStream 2020 had the highest throughput of any ATM product on the market," says Johnson. In fact, wire- speed throughput was significantly improved with the LightStream 2020, which accelerated data transfer from an Ethernet-based 10 Mbps to a direct-attach ATM at 155 Mbps.
With the LightStream 2020 switch, an enterprise ATM technology at the heart of the university's network, Nemchak is prepared to support future growth. "Our community is transitioning into the enterprise-wide arena in which we are required to expand the walls of our institution without putting up new buildings," continues Nemchak. With that expansion, Network Services will provide ongoing support for "mega-applications" such as DNA research, surgical simulations, multimedia applications, LAN/WAN-based videoconferencing for telemedicine, and distance education. "We can make those transitions and expansions with confidence," asserts Nemchak, "because we believe that we have the best of breed in enterprise-wide ATM technology with the LightStream 2020 switch."
To view the Visible Human on the World Wide Web, connect to the National Library of Medicine's home page, URL:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov
.
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1000th AIP Card Ships
Cisco customers are at the forefront of ATM implementation. Telecom Finland recently deployed the 1000th Cisco 7000 ATM Interface Processor (AIP) as part of a new country-wide ATM service. Telecom Finland uses over 1500 Cisco routers in a sophisticated, multiprotocol network. As it integrated ATM with existing networks, Telecom Finland selected Cisco products not only because Cisco was the first to market with ATM products, but because Cisco products continue to lead the industry in performance.
ATM adoption is accelerating across Europe, and most major European ATM networks use the Cisco 7000 AIP. "Our customers are confirming their need for our cost-effective migration path toward an ATM future," says Donald LeBeau, Cisco Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations. "The success of the Cisco 7000 AIP attests to the vision and the confidence of our customers."
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Cisco's new Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) SBus adapters enable users to connect Sun Microsystems workstations and servers to ATM networks at rates of 155 megabits per second (Mbps). These adapters offer high-bandwidth ATM connectivity in environments that rely on mission-critical or delay- sensitive applications, such as multimedia, medical imaging, or real-time trading floor data. They also offer high throughput for applications that require huge data pipelines, such as CAD file transfers or satellite image processing.
Cisco's ATM SBus adapters offer 155-Mbps connectivity for Sun workstations and servers over fiber-optic (FDDI version) or Category 5 UTP cable.
With the new adapters, Cisco becomes the first networking vendor to offer a complete end-to-end ATM solution that includes both enterprise and workgroup or campus ATM switches, native ATM interface modules for multiprotocol routers and LAN switches, and now ATM adapters for desktop systems and servers.
Both models of Cisco's ATM SBus adapters are compatible with the full line of Sun Microsystems SPARCstations, SPARCservers, and compatibles. One model, a 155-Mbps Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) multimode fiber adapter, provides connectivity over fiber-optic cable to an ATM switch located up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away. The second adapter, designed for 155-Mbps SONET/SDH unshielded twisted pair Category 5 (UTP5), offers connection over copper wire that is especially cost-effective for shorter distances (up to 328 feet or 100 meters).
With these new adapters, a network comprising Cisco's LightStream[tm] family of ATM switches and ATM-capable Cisco 7000 series routers or Catalyst[tm] 5000 series LAN switches can interconnect devices on existing network media, such as Ethernet or FDDI, with ATM-attached servers and workstations running TCP/IP. In the initial release, the adapter software provides IP support using switched virtual connections (SVCs) and ATM Forum User-Network Interface (UNI) 3.0 signaling. Products conform to Requests for Comments (RFCs) 1483, 1577, and 1755.
Cisco's SBus Adapters -- and a new Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS[tm]) release with ATM adapter software -- are available in the third quarter of 1995. Cisco IOS support will include LAN emulation as well as integration with Cisco's Catalyst[tm] 5000 ATM LAN emulation module and the Cisco 7000 ATM Interface Processor.
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