Microsoft is taking a leadership role in the computer industry's movement toward Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology, something which already is being deployed rapidly throughout the telecommunications industry. ATM is expected to elevate computer networking to a next-generation level that will enable a spectrum of new applications, including greatly enhanced multimedia, videoconferencing, and movie-on-demand type video streaming, as well as telephony and other real-time voice services.
ATM accommodates the simultaneous transmission of data, voice, and video, allowing for the unification of today's separate networks that were created for specific functions (computers for data; telephones for voice). And ATM easily coexists in mixed network environments. ATM has been developed to ensure smooth integration with numerous existing network technologies at several levels including Frame Relay, Ethernet, and TCP/IP. This is good news for net administrators, because it means that networks can be incrementally upgraded to ATM.
Microsoft believes that the benefits of ATM technology are significant enough for LAN/WAN communications that it has launched the industry's first logo and compatibility testing program for ATM LAN Emulation solutions for Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0.
The testing and certification will allow vendors to offer their ATM solutions with confidence and will provide assurance for end users upgrading to ATM technology. An ATM call manager and a LAN emulation module allow ATM cards to function in an Ethernet environment, with the ATM card appearing to overlying applications and protocols as if it were Ethernet. The LAN emulation module and call manager work together to accept Ethernet headers and addresses and translate them for ATM. LAN Emulation for token ring systems is being developed.
Microsoft has also outlined its architectural direction for supporting ATM natively in the operating system, something that will be examined later in this paper.
ATM represents a significant advance in network communications and is expected to have a long life. There is nothing faster on the horizon or better geared to support quality-of-service (QoS) based applications, and ATM has been designed from the outset to have the flexibility and scalability that will enable it to match future advances in computer and telecommunications technology.
Micosoft's support of LAN emulation and its plans for supporting ATM natively are part of the company's commitment to making Windows® the communications platform of choice. No other company offers such a rich set of network communications and telephony support built-in to its operating system products.