What is ATM? Essay -- ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Research Essays

What is ATM? Before the discussion of wireless ATM can begin, the concept of ATM in general needs to be discussed. ATM, or by its more formal name Asynchronous Transfer Mode, is a basic packet-based networking system designed for the simultaneous transmissions of voice, video, and data. In the mid 1980s, the major telecommunication companies decided that they needed a new network to handle the surge of video and data, along with voice, traffic being sent over their existing networks. From this, the concept of ATM was born. From an increasing need to handle data traffic, which is inherently packet-based, as well as voice traffic, ATM was designed to work as a packet-switched network. In a packet-switched network, all traffic is broken into small pieces, which are easier to transmit than one large chunk of data. The problem with using this type of network design for ATM is that the old telephone network is circuit-switched, or in other words creates a physical direct connection between the so urce and destination during the transmission. ATM, therefore, is designed so that it can handle circuit-switched traffic on its packet-switched backbone. To accomplish this, ATM creates virtual circuit connections over the packet-based network between the source and the destination. These virtual circuit connections provision a set number of network resources dedicated to the connection between a specific source and destination, making it appear to the old telephone network that a circuit connection is established. This allows an ATM network to guarantee the same or greater quality of service for voice traffic as the old telephone network does, while at the same time providing a much greater level of service for data and video tra... ... shifted to wireless IP-based systems. This shift is mostly due to IP’s built-in ability to handle transmission errors in the realm of wireless communications. Works Cited 1) Ayanoglu, E., K.Y. Eng, M.J. Karol, â€Å"Wireless ATM: Limits, Challenges, and Proposals†, http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cache/papers2/cs/1647/http:zSzzSzwww.exit109.comzSz~enderzSzwatm.pdf/wireless-atm-limits-challenges.pdf, 1996. 2) Black, U. â€Å"ATM: Foundation for Broadband Networks†, Prentice Hall, 1995. 3) Peterson, L. and B. Davie. Computer Networks: A Systems Approach. 2nd edition, Morgan Kaufman, 2000. 4) Wasi, Atif S., â€Å"Wireless ATM†, ftp.netlab.ohio-stat,edu/pub/es/cis788-95/wireless_atm/index.htm, 1995. 5) â€Å"Wand Overview†, www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~wand/SUMMARY/WAND_97.htm, 1996, 1997, 1998.