Design and implementation of IPC network in ATM switching system

This paper presents an inter-processor communication network (IPC net) for an ATM switching system. In order to provide a stable and independent path for the communication between processors in the system, an additional network (i.e., Ethernet) is implemented. An Ethernet switch binds processors into a work group. The IPC network proposed in this paper assures end-to-end inter-processor connection and uniform 76-98 Mbits/s bandwidth without disturbing the user cell flow of the ATM switch. Advantages of the implemented Ethernet IPC network against other IPC mechanisms (e.g., cell bus etc.) are presented in this paper. Also, stability and expected performance were verified by experiments.