CA*NET ATM Backbone Transition

Guy Middleton

Table of Contents

• Stan Barber's Notes
• September 1995 NANOG Home Page

Stan Barber's Notes

CA*NET is now managed by a consortium including UUNET.CA, Bell Global Networks and the University of Toronto. An ATM Transition is being performed where ATM exists, which is in a strip across the lower part of the country. The existing T1 network is being converted to multiple PVC connection ATM network running in small multiples of T1.

The ATM backbone is managed by one Telco and the what is beyond the local touchdowns is managed by the local telco at the touchdown. The components of the networkk using NewBridge 36150 and Cisco 7000s with AIP.

The Problems

• NewBridge has two encoding -- PLCP has problems, so a proprietary encoding (called Direct) is used. This means that direct connects to the 7000 AIP can't be used.
• QoS 1 is currently being used. There is currently no cell loss in the network due to overprovisioning.
• ATM PVC Traffic counters don't exist at this time. NewBridge has a way to provide this, but not via SNMP.

This is not being deployed as a service by the telco.

The NewBridge 36150 has bad buffering and Guy does not know why the telco chose these. Right now, overprovisioning does keep it all working fine. Congestion management is not an issue.

Canary provides funding for CA*NET for the last two years. There is no Canary involvement in the development of the network per se.