Data Communications Computer Networks & OSI
Data Communications Computer Networks & OSI
Computer networks
Data and computer communications (5th ed.)
Data and computer communications (5th ed.)
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ATM is the switching technology that underlies the new (1990s) Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). Early in the 21st century, B-ISDN will offer a variety of services including high-speed data transport, local area network (LAN) interconnection, video on demand, interactive television, multimedia email, CD-quality music, videoconferencing and telephony. Also known as cell relay (because the basic unit of transmission is called a cell), ATM defines a packet switching protocol which roughly maps on to the physical and datalink layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, although some of the functions of the network and transport layers are also included. It is asynchronous in that cells from different sources (applications) share the communication channel on an "as needed" basis, using a scheme known as statistical or asynchronous time division multiplexing (see MULTIPLEXING).