Quasi-STM transmission method based on ATM network

In the ATM network, various kinds of traffic will be supported. This includes traffic which requires high quality of service. For example, coded HDTV requires no cell loss because of high compression and no possibility of retransmission. CBR (constant bit rate) services require no delay jitter. Thus, it will be required to support some class of services with no cell loss and no delay jitter. This paper proposes a new transmission method Q-STM, with which no cell loss and no delay jitter can be supported in the ATM network. The Q-STM introduces two new concepts into the ATM networks; frame structure and time slot reservation. A frame structure itself is similar to the framed ATM. However, in the Q-STM, a frame is divided into some subframes and each subframe is a unit of time switching in intermediate switching nodes. This leads to smaller end-to-end delay than that of the framed ATM. Time slots in a frame are reserved for each Q-STM call in a call setup phase and this leads to no delay jitter and no cell loss. Ordinary ATM service class is also supported and this kind of cell uses an empty slot which is not reserved or is not used because of fluctuation of Q-STM call transmission rate.