Technique for efficiently transporting information through an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network

摘要

In an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) communications system, all ATM switches in a multicast connection perform virtual path (VP) switching except those merge points which perform virtual channel (VC) switching to avoid VCI collisions. The merge points are ATM switches which can merge ATM traffic from at least two incoming links into an outgoing link. In a second approach, each merge point in a multicast connection performs VP switching, and dynamically dispenses VC switching when a VCI collision is detected. Specifically, to prevent further VCI collision, incoming ATM cells indicated by an odd VPI value are VC switched by the merge point while those indicated by an even VPI value are VP switched thereby.