Asynchronous transfer-mode receiver

Asynchronous cell-based transmission is the preferred transmission mode for emerging high-speed network standards such as the IEEE 802.6 metropolitan-area-network standard and the CCITT broadband integrated services digital network. These networks are envisaged to operate at bit rates in excess of 100 Mbit/s. The high bit rate and the cell-based mode of transmission pose challenging requirements on memory-buffer management and the reassembly of packets from constituent cells. The paper describes hardware architecture and memory-management techniques developed to achieve the required packet-reassembly functions and buffer-memory management for a node operating in a high speed asynchronous-transfer-mode-based network. The paper also discusses a number of major generic issues addressed during the development.