Multi-Protocol Over ATM (MPOA): Performance Tests
Heikki Vatiainen, Jarmo Harju, Hannu Koivisto, Sampo Saaristo, Juha Vihervaara
hessu@cs.tut.fi, harju@cs.tut.fi, hak@pori.tut.fi, s156953@cs.tut.fi, vihis@pori.tut.fi
Tampere University of Technology
Department of Information Technology
Telecommunications Laboratory
P.O. Box 553, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
Abstract
MPOA is a solution for routed networks to benefit more
from the underlying ATM network and its QoS proper-
ties. MPOA offers more scalability, performance and
lower latency than it is possible get from a router based
network.
MPOA builds on many existing protocols and com-
bines them to a scalable layer 3 switched routing so-
lution. In this paper the performance and delay char-
acteristics of an MPOA based solution are studied and
compared to a “traditional” router based network where
ATM shortcuts are not used
1 ATM on Linux
ATM support for the Linux operating system has been
under active development since 1995. The project was
started by M.Sc Werner Almesberger and is currently
at its 56th release. The project still continues with
steady pace and the ATM support will probably be in-
cluded in the Linux distribution kernels in the near fu-
ture. [Linux-ATM]
The ATM on Linux distribution supports a wide vari-
ety of ATM related protocols and utilities. The features
include support for a number of ATM network cards,
UNI 3.0, 3.1 and 4.0 signalling, UBR and CBR traf-
fic categories, support for PVCs and SVCs through a
Berkeley sockets based API, Classical IP, LANE and
MPOA.
Tampere University of Technology has been active
contributor to the ATM on Linux distribution. The
work at TUT has mainly focused in IP over ATM tech-
niques and protocols. Highlights include LANE ser-
vice and client support which were developed in ear-
lier projects with the latest addition being support for
MPOA clients. [Kiiskilä]
2 What is MPOA?
Multi-Protocol Over ATM is a method for efficient
transfer of inter-subnet unicast data in LANE environ-
ment. The existing functionali