ATM/ADSL: Progress on ATM/ADSL Integration Work Intensifies at ATM Forum ADSL Workshop
The ATM Forum, an association whose charter is to speed the development
and deployment of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) products and services,
announced Tuesday that it has accelerated its work with The ADSL Forum,
through an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) workshop that
included representatives of the T1E1 standards body and the Universal ADSL
Working Group, at the ATM Forum’s recent meeting in Portland Oregon (July
27-31).
With each organization bringing its own ATM/ADSL integration work to the
table, the participants began laying the groundwork to coordinate their
efforts and define a common set of objectives.
Additionally, The ATM Forum also announced, it is moving forward with two
specifications focusing on ATM addressing, and it has sent three new
specifications that address Residential Broadband (RBB), Private
Network-to-Network Interface (PNNI) and device management in the carrier
space to final ballot.
ATM is well established as the transport technology best suited for
integrating voice, video and data across local and wide area networks.
ADSL is positioned to deliver multi-megabit services over existing
telephone lines into the home.
Recognizing the mutual benefits of integrating ATM and ADSL,
representatives of the different groups met in Portland to discuss the
issues that need to be addressed to make the benefits of ATM and ADSL
integration a reality.
Separately, The ATM Forum, recognizing the need to formalize the ATM
addressing process so that end-users and technical staff can more easily
implement ATM services, has completed the baseline work on User and
Reference Guides that explain why and when ATM addresses are needed and
how to acquire, implement and administer them.
Greg Ratta, chairman for The ATM Forum’s Technical Committee said,
“Building on the success of ATM as a stable and mature technology, The ATM
Forum also has the responsibility of easing the introduction of ATM into
environments where users need to integrate real time applications such as
voice and video with their existing data networks.
“The groundwork on ATM and ADSL integration discussed at the Portland
meeting — in addition to the addressing work in progress and the
completed work — are making it possible to integrate ATM across a wide
variety of platforms, including the expansion of its use into the home.”
Laying the ATM/ADSL Integration Groundwork
The purpose of the ADSL workshop held at The ATM Forum meeting in Portland
was to identify common ground among the four groups represented and to
identify the issues that need to be addressed in order to integrate ATM as
a transport technology for ADSL.
Enhancements to signaling, traffic management, and network management
specifications may be necessary to accommodate the special characteristics
of an ADSL physical layer. While some open issues were closed in Portland,
the remaining issues will be addressed at future meetings.
Marlis Humphrey, chairman of the board of The ATM Forum observed,
“Existing mechanisms enable deployment of ATM over ADSL access networks
for high speed Internet access today. The groundwork laid at the Portland
meeting will enable deployment of more efficient large scale multimedia
and multiservice ATM over ADSL networks as well as deployment of ATM over
‘lite’ or ‘splitterless’ ADSL networks.
“We are accelerating the timeline that will enable users in the home or
office to benefit from ATM services.”
About the Specifications
The User Guide and Technical Guide documents for the ATM addressing work
in progress are now out for straw vote. This means the baseline work is
complete and the documents are ready for review by the membership.
Objections and requests for clarifications received during the straw vote
ballot process will be resolved at the next meeting of the Technical
Committee.
At the conclusion of the straw vote process, the documents will then be
approved as specifications through a final ballot. The three documents
currently out for final ballot address the physical interface for ATM into
the home, signaling applied between nodes of ATM networks that employ
static hop-by-hop routing, and management information for network elements
in the carrier space.
For a complete listing of all ratified ATM Forum specifications please
visit The ATM Forum on the Internet at
http://www.atmforum.com/atmforum/specs/approved.html.
The ATM Forum
Formed in 1991, The ATM Forum’s membership currently includes more than
660 companies representing all sectors of the computer and communications
industries, as well as government agencies, research organizations and end
users. The Forum’s charter is to speed the development and deployment of
ATM products and services.
Activities include development and recommendation of interoperability
specifications and the promotion of industry cooperation and awareness.
COPYRIGHT 1998 EDGE Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group