Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Abstract

Aynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) has been accepted universally as the transfer mode
of choice for Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks(BISDN). ATM can
handle any kind of information i.e. voice, data, image, text and video in an integrated
manner. ATM provides a good bandwidth flexibility and can be used efficiently from
desktop computers to local area and wide area networks. ATM is a connection- oriented
packet switching technique in which all packets are of fixed length i.e. 53 bytes(5 bytes
for header and 48 bytes for information). The header is used to identify cells belonging
to the same virtual channel and thus used in appropriate routing. Cell sequence integrity
is preserved per virtual channel. ATM Adaptation layers(AAL) are used to support
various services and provide service specific functions. This AAL specific information is
contained in the information field of the ATM cell.

The ATM adaptation layers are:

• AAL Type 1 --- constant bit rate services

 • AAL Type 2 --- variable bit rate services

• AAL Type 3/4 --- connectionless services/data protocols

• AAL Type 5 --- high-speed data protocol

No processing like error control is done on the information field of ATM cells inside the
network and it is carried transparently in the network.

ATM meets the following objectives for BISDN networks.

1) Supports all existing services as well as emerging services in the future

2) utilizes network resources very efficiently

3)minimizes the switching complexity

4)minimizes the processing time at the intermediate nodes and supports very high
transmission speeds.

5)minimizes the number of buffers required at the intermediate nodes to bound the
delay and the complexity of buffer management

6)guarantees performance requirements of existing and emerging applications.

In our paper we have discussed the important features as well as advantages of atm over
other

technologies.

Snigdha Bhardwaj
5th semester
Computer Science and Engineering
email:snigdha_bhardwaj@rediffmail.com

KOsha Shah
5th semester
electronics
email:kosha_shah@rediffmail.com