Data communications using ATM: architectures, protocols, and resource management

The introduction of ATM is being propelled by the need for fast data communications in public and private networks. What is needed is a clear picture of protocol architectures and traffic characteristics of the various applications to be supported both now and in the future. The authors discuss ATM network architectures with special focus on the support of connectionless LAN interconnection and show which benefits can be obtained from the introduction of a connectionless server in an ATM network. They outline issues related to the use of existing protocols when ATM networks are introduced and show which protocol complexities have to be handled by gateways and servers, again using the example of connectionless LAN interconnection. Having presented network and protocol architectures the issue of data communication in ATM, resource allocation, is treated.<>