ATM technology and beyond

Abstract

Networks based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) are expected to provide cost-effective and ubiquitous infrastructure to support broadband and multimedia services. In this paper, we give an overview of the ATM standards and its associated physical layer transport technologies. We use the experimental HIPPI-ATM-SONET (HAS) interface in the Nectar Gigabit Testbed to illustrate how one can use the SONET/ATM public network to provide transport for bursty gigabit applications.