IXP1200 Network Processor Family ATM OC-3/12/Ethernet IP Router Example Design
Application Note 17
Modified on: 3/20/02,

2.4 Data Flow

2.4.1 ATM to Ethernet Data Flow

Figure 10 outlines the processing to receive ATM cells and forward them to Ethernet ports. For a
given VC, three different types of cells of the PDU can arrive: the first cell, middle cells, and last
cell:
1. The first cell of the IP over ATM PDU contains three types of headers: ATM header, LLC/
SNAP header, and IP Header. This is sufficient information to make a forwarding decision.
The payload portion of this cell is moved directly from the RFIFO to DRAM.
2. Subsequent middle cells are moved directly from the RFIFO to DRAM without any additional
processing.
3. When the last cell of the PDU (which contains the AAL5 trailer) is received, the payload of the
cell is moved directly from the RFIFO to DRAM, and the completed PDU is then enqueued
for Ethernet transmission.

2.4.1.1 VC Lookup

A VC lookup is performed on each cell received over an ATM port. The appropriate VC Table
Entry is located using the VPI/VCI value in the ATM header plus the port number. The lookup
provides an DRAM packet buffer base address, plus the CRC-32 syndrome for the PDU. As each
additional payload is added to the DRAM buffer, the offset value is incremented and the CRC
Figure 9. IXP1200 2xATM OC-3 Software-CRC and 4xEthernet 100Mbps Microengine
Partitioning
A9636-01
Generate
CRC GEN
Generate
Generate
Generate
PktQ
PktQ
PktQ
PktQ
Scheduler
Ethernet TX
Fill
Fill
Fill
Port0
Ethernet RX
Port1
Port2
Port3
Port 8
ATM TX
Port 9
Unused
Unused
Check
CRC CHK
Check
Check
Check
Port 8
ATM RX
Port 9
IP Route
IP Route
Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet
OC-3
OC-3
OC-3
OC-3
BDQ
BDQ Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet
MSGQ
MSGQ
*
Legend:
= Thread
= Microengine
= Physical Port
= Scratchpad
Memory
= SRAM = MSGQ