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Seminar - An Overview of Communications Technologies


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Module 4 - ATM Technology                                                                                                                      Slide 34 of 46 _________________                                                                                  __________

                 How Does ATM Compare with Other Broadband Technologies?

Characteristics ATM SONET FDDI Frame Relay Gigabit Ethernet SMDS TCP / IP
Service               Yes  
Protocol   Yes   Yes   Yes   Yes   Yes     Yes
Transmission Facilities Copper, Cable, Fiber   Fiber   Fiber  Copper   Fiber Copper, Fiber Copper, Cable, Fiber
Bandwidth   M bps   G bps  M bps   M bps   G bps   M bps   M bps
Good for LAN Files    Yes   Yes   Yes   Yes     Yes   Yes
Good for Voice   Yes       Yes       Yes
Good for Video   Yes             Yes
Good for Multimedia   Yes       Yes (no video)       Yes
QOS   Yes             Yes

_________________                                                                                  __________

Many broadband technologies and broadband services are available. They are competing with each other. A broadband technology, like FDDI, is suited to private networks. SMDS is a public service designed for interconnecting LANs. SONET is a core network technology. It is a transport interface to carry services on a public network. ATM is a switching mechanism for multimedia services. TCP / IP is "a new kid on the block" from desktop-to-desktop mulimedia applications and competing with ATM technology.