An ATM multimedia architecture: Design, implementation, and performance

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zeadally, Sherali^;

Affiliations: Department of Computer Science, University of Buckingham, Buckingham, MK18 1EG, UK | Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, University Park DRB 116, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA

Abstract: This paper describes the design, implementation, and performance of an ATM multimedia architecture for the UNIX environment. An ATM card has been designed for the EISA bus and provides host connectivity to an ATM network. The network architecture has been built from scratch and supports applications that use standard protocols such as TCP/IP as well as other applications that require a raw AAL5 service. To support continuous media applications such as digital video/audio, a kernel module has been implemented and incorporated into the UNIX operating system. The kernel module improves application performance by providing an in-kernel data path which allows direct streaming of digital video/audio between an ATM network adapter and the display device.

Keywords: Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), AAL5 protocol, device driver, multimedia, operating system, performance

DOI: 10.3233/JHS-1997-6202

Journal: Journal of High Speed Networks, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 93-109, 1997