🚀 go-pugleaf

siemsen@barnard.usc.edu (Pete Siemsen) writes:
+---------------
| A buzzword at Interop '92 was ATM.  What is a decent reference on ATM?
+---------------

A quite reasonable overview of ATM may be found in Fred Goldstein's book,
"ISDN in Perspective" (Addison-Wesley), in Chapter 8, "Broadband ISDN".

My only gripe with it as a "stand-alone" ATM reference (that is, reading
*only* Chapter 8) is that there is a lengthy section on the SONET Physical
Layer during which he uses a lot of SONET-internal terms (e.g., "path
overhead") without ever referring you back to the end of Chapter 3 where
the terms were defined (in a concise SONET tutorial, including a picture
of a SONET frame). A miniscule nit, perhaps, but irritating.

Oh, also, the book came out just as AAL5 was being proposed, and thus it
underestimates the impact that AAL5 is having. (It's barely mentioned at
the end of the the AAL4 section.) And in the speculation about the future
of B-ISDN (ATM) in Chapter 9, "ISDN in Practice", it makes no mention of
the increasing pressure from computer manufacturers and network component
vendors (e.g. the ATM Forum and others) to deploy ATM as *the* next-gener-
ation LAN... NOW!  One is left with the impression that ATM deployment will
come along in the telcos' own sweet time.

By the way, the rest of the book, on ISDN BRI & PRI, is nice, too.


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, MS-9U/510		rpw3@sgi.com
Silicon Graphics, Inc.		(415)390-1673
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA  94043