Chapter 14
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
In this chapter, we provide an introduction to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), which
is a high-speed switching network architecture created in the late 1980s/early 1990s. ATM
was designed expressly to combine the delivery of a wide range of services (data, voice,
and video) over a single network. We briefly examined ATM from various perspectives in
nearly every chapter of this book. It is now time to present a more detailed discussion of
this technology. An outline of the major topics we discuss follows:
• Definition and History of ATM (Questions 1–3)
• General Concepts and Operation of ATM (Questions 4–7)
• ATM Interfaces and the Anchorage Accord (Questions 8–10)
• ATM Components and Addressing (Questions ...