Method and apparatus to monitor and analyze network information of an inverse multiplexed asynchronous transfer mode network

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring inverse multiplexing over asynchronous transfer mode (IMA) links of an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network;

determining whether each of the cells is one of a filler cell, an IMA control protocol (ICP) cell, a changing ICP cell, or a payload cell, and adding identification data to the determined filler cell, ICP cell, changing ICP cell, or payload cell; and

determining statistics regarding cells transmitted through the IMA links.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising generating one or more dummy cells in response to one of the monitored IMA links being inoperative.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising determining an IMA frame length value of the IMA links in response to detecting an ICP cell.

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising framing the IMA links corresponding to the determined IMA frame length value.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determined statistics comprise one or more of a total number, an average number, a peak number in a predetermined time period, and a total number in a predetermined time period of the filler cells, ICP cells, changing ICP cells, and/or payload cells.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising identifying stuff cells and removing the stuff cells before determining the statistics.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the statistics are determined regardless of a sequence of the cells.

8. A method comprising:

monitoring inverse multiplexing over asynchronous transfer mode (IMA) links of an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network;

determining an IMA frame length value of the IMA links in response to detecting an IMA control protocol (ICP) cell;

framing the IMA links corresponding to the determined IMA frame length value; determining the IMA links to be in an in-frame state in response to ICP cells being located at predetermined positions in a stream of the cells, and determining the IMA links to be in an out-of-frame state in response to the ICP cells not being located at the predetermined positions;

determining statistics regarding cells transmitting through the IMA links;

generating sequence numbers for the cells in response to the IMA links being determined to be in the in-frame state; and aligning the cells to be output in a correct order according to the sequence numbers.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the sequence numbers are generated for the cells of the IMA links determined to be in the in-frame state that are payload cells.

10. An apparatus to determine statistics regarding one or more inverse multiplexing over asynchronous transfer mode (IMA) links of an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network, the apparatus comprising:

one or more IMA link pre-processors to process cells from the respective one or more IMA links according to a type of the cells, wherein each of the one or more IMA link pre-processors comprises a cell parser to determine whether each of the cells is a filler cell, an IMA control protocol (ICP) cell, a changing ICP cell, or a payload cell, and add identification data to the determined filler cell, ICP cell, changing ICP cell, or payload cell;

a select and collapse unit to select which of the one or more IMA links to receive the processed cells from, and collapse the processed cells of the selected IMA links into one stream; and

an aligner to receive the one stream of processed cells from the select and collapse unit and determine statistics regarding the processed cells of the one stream.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of the one or more IMA link pre-processors comprises:

an ICP cell reader to receive the cells from the cell parser and determine an IMA frame length value of a respective IMA link;

a frame generator to receive the cells and the determined IMA frame length value from the ICP cell reader and determine a frame state of the respective IMA link according to the determined IMA frame length value;

a sequence number generator to receive an ICP cell sequence number and position indication of the ICP cells from the frame generator and assign sequence numbers to the payload cells; and

a buffer to store the cells having the assigned sequence numbers before being transmitted to the select and collapse unit.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the select and collapse unit writes the processed cells to a delay buffer according to sequence numbers assigned by the one or more IMA link pre-processors.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the select and collapse unit writes the processed cells to a delay buffer regardless of sequence numbers assigned by the one or more IMA link pre-processors.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the aligner outputs the determined statistics and data of the processed cells.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the aligner outputs the data of the processed cells in order according to sequence numbers added to the processed IMA cells.