Using WAN established infrastructure, one of the main problems ATM network planners and users face, when greater than T 1=E1 bandwidth is required, is the disproportionate cost associated with T 3=E3 links. The technology to cover the gap between T 1=E1 and T 3=E3 bandwidth at a reasonable cost is known as inverse multiplexing for ATM (IMA). IMA allows multiple T 1=E1 lines to be aggregated to support the transparent transmission of ATM cells over one single virtual trunk. In this paper, the fundamentals and major applications of IMA technology are described. Also, the behavior of IMA multiplexers is carefully analyzed and a method to dimension them proposed. For this purpose, an IMA simulation tool has been developed. The IMA simulator permits the study of individual devices and the evaluation of the end-to-end performance of a logical trunk under several ATM input traAc patterns. The analytical study is based on the comparison with an M=D=C=ONa CU queue system. Under Poisson input traAc, an approximation for the cell loss ratio (CLR) is derived and an estimate of the cell delay in an IMA multiplexer obtained. In addition, the suitability of these results for two types of bursty traAc is investigated. ” 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
['Marcos Postigo-Boix', 'Joan Garcia-Haro', 'Mónica Aguilar-Igartua']
IMA: technical foundations, application and performance analysis