Proxy PNNI augmented routing (Proxy PAR)

ATM networks often carry other popular communication protocols such as TCP/ IP. LAN emulation techniques, with LANE and MPOA being the most prominent o nes, make it possible to support existing applications, but do not take adv antage of many ATM capabilities. Furthermore, such server-based solutions o ften suffer from single point of failure problems. PNNI Augmented Routing ( PAR), based on Private Network-Network Interface (PNNI), enables ATM and TC P/IP to be better integrated than in an emulation environment. In addition to that, Proxy PAR has been introduced as a minimal version of PAR that giv es ATM-attached devices the ability to interact with PNNI devices without t he complexity associated with a full PAR implementation. Proxy PAR has been conceived as a client/server interaction in which the client side is much simpler than the server side, permitting fast implementation and deployment in existing IPv4 devices. The main purpose of Proxy PAR is to allow non-AT M devices to use the flooding mechanisms provided by PNNI for registration and automatic discovery of services offered. Proxy PAR capable servers supp ort filtering based on Virtual Private Network (VPN) IDs, IP protocols and address prefixes. This enables, for example, routers in a certain VPN runni ng OSPF to find their neighboring routers without the manual configuration implied by other technologies such as Frame Relay.