One of the basic problems in IP networks is lack of scalability. Expansion of a Wide Area Network (WAN) which is completely based on IP routers is faced with many difficulties because of the high level processing on the headers of the IP packets. ATM technology is able to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) and provide very high speed to its users. In order to utilize the advantages of both IP and ATM, the subject of the implementation of IP over ATM has been considered. One of the first and most important difficulties in implementing IP over ATM is the diverse performance of IP and ATM. IP is a connection-less protocol that does not guarantee the user's QoS; whereas, ATM is of the connection-oriented type and is able to grantee the QoS of its users. Different models for implementing IP over ATM have been presented which will be explained in this tutorial.

1. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
2. Internet Protocol (IP)
3. IP over ATM models:
   1. LAN Emulation (LANE)
   2. Classical IP over ATM
   3. Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP)
   4. Multi-Protocol over ATM (MPOA)
   5. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
4. MPLS Architecture
5. Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
6. Traffic Engineering in MPLS networks
7. Conclusion

Biography

Mostafa Safavi was born on 14 June 1953 in Isfahan, Iran. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees both in electrical engineering in 1976 and 1997, respectively from Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Information Technology (Communication) from George Mason University in Virginia, USA in 1993. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Amirkabir University in Tehran, Iran, where he teaches High Speed Networks, Satellite Communication, and Queueing Theory for Communication Systems among other courses.

Mohammad Hossien Yaghmaee was born on July 1971 in Mashhad, Iran. He received his B.S. degree in communication engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 1993, and M.S. degree in communication engineering from Tehran Polytechnic (Amirkabir) University of Technology in 1995. He received his Ph.D. degree in communication engineering from Tehran Polytechnic in 1999. He has been a computer network researcher with several networking projects in Iran Telecommunications Research Center (ITRC) since 1992. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Computer Dept. of Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Iran. His research interests are in traffic and congestion