ATM Adaptation Layer 5
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ATM Adaptation Layer 5 (AAL5) is an ATM adaptation layer used to send variable-length packets up to 65,535 octets in size across an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network.
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Unlike most network frames, which place control information in the header, AAL5 places control information in an 8-octet trailer at the end of the packet. The AAL5 trailer contains a 16-bit length field, a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and two 8-bit fields labeled UU and CPI that are currently unused.
Each AAL5 packet is divided into an integral number of ATM cells and reassembled into a packet before delivery to the receiving host. This process is known as Segmentation and Reassembly (see below). The last cell contains padding to ensure that the entire packet is a multiple of 48 octets long. The final cell contains up to 40 octets of data, followed by padding bytes and the 8-octet trailer. In other words, AAL5 places the trailer in the last 8 octets of the final cell where it can be found without knowing the length of the packet; the final cell is identified by a bit in the ATM header (see below), and the trailer is always in the last 8 octets of that cell.