An ATM OAM processor for B-ISDN network equipments

The ATM equipment is being introduced very rapidly into private local area networks. The public backbone ATM access network will be established in the near future. It is a very urgent requirement for ATM network equipment to detect a network failure or the service degradation as the ATM service traffic is increased through the public ATM network. It is very important for ATM network equipment to have satisfactory OAM (Operation And Maintenance) solutions. In this paper, we describe the ATM technical requirements which are necessary to support ATM OAM functionalities, represent the functions and architecture of an ATM OAM processor ASIC (ASAH-L), and the top-down ASIC design methodology which we have used.