Advanced cell recovery techniques for ATM networks

The new perspective techniques for cell recovery in ATM end-to-end connections and in ATM virtual paths are introduced and analyzed. These techniques are based on the forward error correction (FEC) strategy and are oriented to delivery of non-realtime data over a set of ATM switching nodes. Specifically, using a special class of two-dimensional error correcting codes of variable length in the virtual paths allows a significant simplification of the complexity of the network protocol stack. Besides, no data retransmission operations are considered on the ATM adaptation layer (AAL) or by means of the service specific connection oriented protocol. The parameters of the analyzed techniques can be adjusted automatically depending on cell flow intensity and on error distribution in the fiber optic communication channel. A special mechanism is proposed to inform a decoding device about the dimensions of each sequential data unit delivered in a virtual path and to protect the dimensions' identifier from random errors.