Although the a entry requires a complete ATM address, you can reference multiple addresses in a single entry using the provided wildcards. See “Using Variables in the aarconfig File” on page 47 for more information about this feature.
The advantage of having an ATM ARP server in the subnet is that it represents a known source for all address resolutions. It is the only host that a client must know about to have IP addresses resolved to ATM connections, and it allows for access control in the ATM network.
When the /etc/opt/SUNWconn/atm/aarconfig file has been modified on a system, it is necessary to rerun aarsetup.
Note
This can benefit clients that communicate frequently because it eliminates having to go through the ATM ARP server for
If a host has multiple SunATM cards, the host can be a server for one IP subnet and a client for another. This is handled transparently by aarsetup.
LAN Emulation
As described in previous sections, Classical IP provides its own
Because ATM is a
Local area network (LAN) Emulation, as standardized by the ATM Forum, provides mechanisms to send broadcast messages in an ATM environment. Given this capability, LAN Emulation is also able to work transparently with ARP, as well as IP. IP and ARP send broadcast messages over the ATM interface, and thus resolve IP addresses to MAC addresses; messages are then sent to the LAN Emulation driver, which has its own address resolution protocol (similar to that of Classical IP) to resolve the medium access control (MAC) address to an ATM address and connection.
Chapter 7 Classical IP and LAN Emulation Protocols 69
