A network interface card for wireless ATM networks

Wireless ATM networks will provide multimedia information to end users anywhere and anytime. A key technology component in the integration of a wireless ATM (WATM) network is the WATM network interface card (NIC). Similar to ATM NICs, the WATM NIC requires the support of the ATM and AAL layer transfer protocols. But, in order to provide a reliable wireless transmission platform, WATM NICs should also incorporate data link control (DLC), media access control (MAC), and radio physical (RPhy) layer functionality. As a result, the WATM NICs processing requirements are more demanding than that of ATM NICs at equivalent transmission rates. Thus, the design of a high-performance WATM NIC software/hardware low-cost architecture poses a new challenge. This paper presents a new architecture and implementation of a first generation 8 Mb/s WATM NIC developed at NEC Princeton for the WATMnet network