Protocol Overhead in ATM networks SCCS-678

This report discusses the performance and sources of protocol overhead in ATM networks. It first introduces ATM followed by a description of the inhouse ATM network. Our primary goal was to study the performance tradeoff of chosing TCP/IP versus ATM API in a local ATM network. 1 Introduction While networks, especially local area networks, have been getting faster, perceived throughput at the application has not always increased accordingly. Various performance bottlenecks have been encountered, each of which has to be analyzed and corrected. The layer most often suspected of contributing to low throughput is the transport layer of the protocol suite. This layer has considerable functionality and is typically executed in software by the host processor at the end points of the network. It is thus a likely source of processing overhead. TCP is the transport protocol from the Internet protocol suite. In this set of protocols, the functions of detecting and recovering lost or corrupted p..