Monitoring and control of ATM networks using special cells

This article describes a framework for monitoring and controlling ATM networks based on the use of management cells. By management cells we refer to a broad class of special cells that circulate around the network to perform a variety of useful functions for monitoring and optimizing the operation of the network. The proposed framework includes current ATM-layer OAM (operations and maintenance) methods as well as new mechanisms for more sophisticated long-term network management. This article explores various existing and new uses of management cells for performance monitoring, traffic control, fault management, and network administration.