AT&T® ATM Services
Looking to reduce the cost and complexity of your communications network? AT&T® Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is the answer. ATM can accommodate voice, video, data, and images, allowing you to consolidate all your communication applications on a single service. ATM operates as a virtual network that performs as well as private lines, but at a lower expense through the use of permanent virtual circuits (PVC). It's perfect for interconnecting LANs or distributed computing applications over a wide area.
ATM is a high-speed service—up to 155 megabits per second (Mbps)—that lets you consolidate all of your communication traffic on a single service. ATM uses equal-sized packets, called "cells" of information, that are insensitive to different types of traffic, whether you are sending sporadic traffic (i.e., inventory orders), constant traffic (i.e., video), or both types simultaneously.
ATM serves users' applications using PVCs. With PVCs, you have the ability to define multiple logical connections between multiple users via a single access line. ATM is designed to allow additional dynamic bandwidth allocation through temporary data bursting, giving users the capacity to burst beyond their subscribed rate.
AT&T® ATM is structured to provide internetworking and support between all current communication technologies, such as AT&T® Frame Relay and AT&T Connectionless Broadband Data Services (CBDS). With AT&T multiple architectures, users have a clear migration path to ATM without the risk of obsolescence of current technologies. In addition, ATM consolidates traffic by combining SNA, LAN, video and voice all over the same network in a cost-effective, easy-to-manage format.
AT&T® Customer Network Management (CNM) Service enables ATM customers to manage their networks by allowing them to monitor the Logical Termination Points on the subscriber network interfaces. AT&T uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) as the standard network management protocol for CNM.
You get...
Consolidation—ATM lets you consolidate separate voice, video, image, and data networks, minimizing access line costs and support needs.
Flexible Bandwidth—ATM lets traffic burst higher than the circuit's subscribed rate, and allows you to allocate additional permanent bandwidth quickly.
Simple Interconnection—ATM lets you interconnect different hardware and software easily, thanks to ATM's internationally standardized protocol.
Security—Private access lines and ATM's virtual circuit addressing scheme ensure data security and user privacy. There is an additional option of data encryption to further ensure security.
No Obsolescence—Your ATM on-site equipment can be owned and maintained by SBC, so you don't have to worry about obsolescence, maintenance, or support.
Reliability—AT&T monitors your ATM network 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, ensuring that your service runs smoothly.
It's good for...
LAN interconnection
Collaborative computing
Video conferencing
Medical imaging
Interactive distance learning
Computer-simulated design testing
Pharmaceutical ordering
Accessing financial market statistics
Transmitting backup data for disaster recovery
Campus backbone/collapsed backbone
How It Works:
In AT&T's Network
AT&T® ATM is based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology, which segments your data traffic into small packets of information called cells. AT&T's network carries as many simultaneously-occurring cells as it receives, allocating bandwidth traffic to you as needed. Each cell carries a circuit identifier that tells our network where to send it. And since each cell is the same size as any other, AT&T's network routes them all to their destinations quickly, minimizing any delay.
At Your Premises
Each of your sites connect to an ATM access line via an ATM device supplied by AT&T. Your on-site equipment—bridges, routers, controllers, or other devices—can connect directly to the ATM device with a variety of industry- standard hardware interfaces.