DTM, perhaps? DTM is a network protocol for high speed
networking developed for dynamic transport of
integrated traffic. It is a transport network
architecture based on circuit-switching augmented
with dynamic reallocation of bandwidth.
The protocol is designed to be used in integrated
services networks and have support for point-to-point,
multicast and broadcast communication, i.e., DTM
network will be used for both distribution and unicast
communication.
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DTM includes switching and a signalling protocol and
can thus, in contrast to e.g., SDH/SONET, set up
multi-rate channels (circuits) on demand, and the
capacity of a channel can be changed according to
traffic characteristics during operation. Additionally,
resources can be reallocated between nodes according
to the current demands. In this way, free bandwidth is
allocated to nodes with highest demands, providing an
autonomous and very efficient dynamic
infrastructure.For a more detailed description, see our
How DTM Works tutorial.
A DTM network can be used directly for
application-to-application communication or can be
used as a carrier network for higher layer protocols,
such as ATM or IP. DTM has the same type of framing
structure as existing transport networks, SDH/SONET,
using 125 us frames that are divided into time slot.
However, DTM operates at layer one to three and thus,
in contrast to for example SDH/SONET, includes
switching and a signalling protocol. It is thus an
alternative to using an ATM over SDH/SONET
infrastructure. Due to the similarity to SDH/SONET
frames, it can interoperate with existing SDH/SONET
infrastructures, so DTM networks can carry SDH/SONET
streams and SDH/SONET networks can carry DTM
streams. Since DTM does not have the rigid hierarchical
capacity levels of SDH/SONET, a much higher utilisation
can be obtained when transporting data traffic,
especially when adding the ability to dynamically adjust
the capacity of the circuits according to the traffic
characteristics. Still, DTM maintains many of the
advantages of circuit-switched networks; guaranteed
capacity, flow isolation and simple and deterministic
QoS differentiation. The isochronous service provided by
DTM also ensures a good support of both exisiting
PDH/SDH structures as well as the increasing data
traffic.
Net Insight has developed an IP switch solution using
DTM's switching capabilities. The IP switch solution
handles data, voice and video smoothly and solves
many of the problems associated with IP traffic in
today's networks, e.g., provides bandwidth on demand,
allows for preferential resource reservation, and
supports multicasting |
