used for variable bitrate (VBR) services, and AAL5 for data. Which AAL is in use for a given cell is not encoded in the cell. Instead, it is negotiated by or configured at the endpoints on a per-virtual-connection basis. Following the initial design of ATM, networks have become much faster. A 1500 byte (12000-bit) full-size Ethernet frame takes only 1.2 µs to transmit on a 10 Gbit/s network, reducing the need for small cells to reduce jitter due to contention. The increased link speeds by themselves do not alleviate jitter due to queuing. Additionally, the hardware for implementing the service adaptation for IP packets is expensive at very high speeds. ATM provides a useful ability to carry multiple logical circuits on a single physical or virtual medium, although other techniques exist, such as Multi-link PPP, Ethernet VLANs, and multi-protocol support over SONET. Virtual circuits A network must establish a connection before two parties can send cells to each other. In ATM this is called a virtual circuit (VC). It can be a permanent virtual circuit (PVC), which is created administratively on the end points, or a switched virtual circuit (SVC), which is created as needed by the communicating parties. SVC creation is managed by signaling, in which the requesting party indicates the address of the receiving party, the type of service requested, and whatever traffic parameters may be applicable to the selected service. "Call admission" is then performed by the network to confirm that the requested resources are available and that a route exists for the connection. Motivation ATM operates as a channel-based transport layer, using VCs. This is encompassed in the concept of the virtual paths (VP) and virtual channels. Every ATM cell has an 8- or 12-bit virtual path identifier (VPI) and 16-bit virtual channel identifier (VCI) pair defined in its header. The VCI, together with the VPI, is used to identify the next destination of a cell as it passes through a series of ATM switches on its way to its destination. The length of the VPI varies according to whether the cell is sent on the user-network interface (on the edge of the network), or if it is sent on the network-network interface (inside the network). As these cells traverse an ATM network, switching takes place by changing the VPI/VCI values (label swapping). Although the VPI/VCI values are not necessarily consistent from one end of the