Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a packet-switching and multiplexing technique that is widely used in today’s internetworks. While ATM is very simple and does not provide any error recovery, it has been designed to interoperate with any protocol that supports end-to-end error recovery. It is a very successful and widely used networking technology, and, for this reason, has been described in many works.

This book is somewhat different from other books on ATM. Of its two parts, the first is rather standard and describes the basics of the ATM technology. It begins by presenting the benefits of ATM and some examples of its application. The simplicity of ATM has many advantages. First, the ATM protocol is suited for label switching, which is cheap and fast. It has a low latency, provides a high speed and high bandwidth, supports many services, and works with existing protocols and legacy LANs. The ATM protocol is described in chapter 2, with reference to the ATM protocol stack, and a presentation of different protocol layers. Additional information about commonly used physical protocols is presented in Appendices A through D. The rest of the first part refers, in order, to call control procedures, ATM switching systems, traffic management, and network management.

The second part describes how various services can be delivered over ATM. It provides useful information about most important ATM applications, filling a gap in the literature. Chapter 7 deals with circuit emulation, which supports transparent transport of circuit-switched information over ATM networks. Chapter 8 shows how a traditional LAN can be emulated as an ATM service, so that devices on Ethernet or Token Ring LANs can communicate over an ATM network or with ATM endpoints using the same application and networking protocols. Chapter 9 discusses a modified version of the IP protocol, named IP over ATM, which supports applications that provide some form of resource reservation for ATM. Chapter 10 refers to the Multi-Protocol Over ATM (MPOA) standard that makes it possible for ATM networks to operate with several inter-network-layer protocols. Chapter 11 describes how multimedia services can be provided over ATM. It gives details about H.321 terminals, which offer multimedia services over native-mode ATM. Chapter 12 covers wireless ATM, while chapter 13 gives an overview of multi-protocol label switching in ATM.

The author’s style is concise and precise. Many technical details are hidden behind the tables, schemas, and summaries. For those needing access to details, references are included at the end of each chapter. While this is not a textbook, some chapters include proposed problems that can help in understanding the technical aspects of the material.

The book includes design examples, which make it a good reference for engineering activities. It can also support courses on ATM technology and applications. The reader should have a basic knowledge of network protocols.