A Survey of Network Signaling

Abstract Network signaling is the process of transferring control information among components of a communication network to establish, maintain, and release connections, and to pass the network management information. The rapid evolution in the field of telecommunications has led to the rapid evolution of network signaling. In this paper, we review the evolution of network signaling. We emphasize the concepts and protocols used in modern fast packet switching networks especially in emerging ATM networks

An Efficient Signaling Structure for ATM Networks

As ATM becomes widely accepted as the communication standard for high speed networks, the signaling system structure and protocols that support ATM become more and more important. To support existing, future and unknown applications, the signaling system has to be very flexible and efficient. In this paper we de ne the signaling problem, present several possible signaling system structures, compare the advantages and disadvantages of these systems, and then we propose a new signaling system structure. The fundamental idea of the new signaling system is the logical separation of the signaling system structure from the underlying communication network, even though they may be built on the same physical network. The proposed signaling system structure shows very promising performance in terms of signaling latency, scalability, and reliability

Node Controller Managed Object (NCMO) and Node Controller COmmunication Protocol (NCCP

With the development of ATM technology and increasing deployment of ATM networks, we anticipate a heterogenous environment for an ATM network. Switches and client stations from different vendors, each with potentially different control mechanisms, will be used within the same network. This diversity of control structures introduces great complexity into the development of ATM control software. In this and associated other documents, we propose a software architecture that manages this heterogenous environment. A key aspect of the software design is that the hardware details of a switch and its control mechanism is encapsulated in a low level software module called the Switch Controller (SC). The Node Controller Communication Protocol (NCCP) is presented that allows higher layer software modules to communicate with the SC. The NCCP is general enough to support general multipoint-to-multipoint communications. A general interface to the NCCP, the Node Controller Managed Object (NCMO) is also presented. The NCMO is an Application Programming Interface (API) to the NCCP for the higher level software modules. The development of the NCMO and the NCCP allows the higher layer modules to operate on an abstract switch model and not have to understand the details of every possible hardware switch that might be present in the network. This partitioning of functionality provides a clean interface between software modules and hence, a viable software architecture for the control of a heterogenous set of switches. 1.This document was originally part of the GBNSC document, the first draft of which was written by Ken Cox. 1

GBNSC: The GigaBit Network Switch Controller

The GigaBit Network Switch Controller (GBNSC) is a process which controls the Washington University Gigabit Switch (WUGS) using in-band ATM control cells. The GBNSC is being developed by the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) of Washington University in St. Louis. This document describes the design and implementation of the GBNSC and is intended for use by those interested in the functionality of the switch controller as well as developers who may be called on to update or maintain it. Version Notes: Version 1.0: All Ken Cox Version 1.1: John’s additions. More NCMO details

Enhancements to 4.4 BSD UNIX for Efficient Networked Multimedia in Project MARS

Cluster based architectures that employ high performance inexpensive Personal Computers (pcs) interconnected by high speed commodity interconnect have been recognized as a cost-effective way of building high performance scalable Multimedia-On-Demand (mod)storage servers [4, 5, 7, 9]. Typically, the pcs in these architectures run operating systems such as unix that have traditionally been optimized for interactive computing. They do not provide fast disk-tonetwork data paths and guaranteed cpu and storage access. This paper reports enhancements to the 4.4 bsd unix system carried out to rectify these limitations in the context of our Project Massively-parallel And Real-time Storage (MARS) [7]. We have proposed and implemented the following enhancements to a 4.4 bsd compliant public domain NetBSD unix operating system: (1) A new kernel buffer management system called Multimedia M-buf (mmbuf) which shortens the data path from a storage device to network interface, (2) priority queueing..

Enhancements to 4.4 BSD UNIX for Efficient Networked Multimedia in Project MARS

Cluster based architectures that employ high performance inexpensive Personal Computers (pcs) interconnected by high speed commodity interconnect have been recognized as a cost-effective way of building high performance scalable Multimedia-On-Demand storage servers [1, 3, 4]. Typically, the pcs in these architectures run operating systems such as unix that have traditionally been optimized for interactive computing. They do not provide fast disk-to-network data paths and guaranteed cpu and storage acccess. This paper reports enhancements to the 4.4 bsd unix system carried out to rectify these limitations in the context of our Project Massively-parallel And Realtime Storage (MARS) [3]. We have proposed and implemented the following enhancements to a 4.4 bsd compliant public domain NetBSD unix operating system: (1) A new kernel buffer management system called Multimedia M-buf (mmbuf) which is used to shorten the data path from a storage device to network output device, (2) priority queu..

Enhancements to 4.4 BSD UNIX for Efficient Networked Multimedia in Project MARS

Cluster based architectures that employ inexpensive Personal Computers (PCs) interconnected by high speed commodity interconnect have been recognized as a cost-effective way of building high performance scalable Multimedia-OnDemand (MOD) storage servers [3, 4, 6, 8]. Typically, the PCs in these architectures run operating systems such as UNIX that have traditionally been optimized for interactive computing and lack fast disk-to-network data paths and support for guaranteed CPU and storage access. In this paper we report design, implementation and performance measurements of innovative enhancements to 4.4 BSD UNIX carried out to rectify these limitations in the context of our Massively-parallel And Real-time Storage (MARS) project [6]. We have proposed and implemented the following enhancements to a 4.4 BSD compliant public domain NetBSD UNIX operating system: (1) A new kernel buffer management system called Multimedia M-buf (mmbuf) which shortens the data path from a storage devic..