Panasonic 1200N manual What is ATM?, Method of Expansion

What is the Centillion 1200N Switch? What is ATM?

Method of Expansion

The number of lines accommodated can be increased by connecting a number of ATM Switch units. Line interface can be used to connect the ATM Switch units. An interface dedicated to connections between units is not necessary. When a number of the ATM Switch units are connected to increase the number of lines, the actual number of lines accommodated is the total number of lines less the number of lines between the units.

What is ATM?

ATM, or Asynchronous Transfer Mode, is a communication method that will serve as the basis for tomorrow's communication network, B-ISDN.

In ATM, all data in the network are exchanged in fixed-length, 53-byte blocks called "cells." This allows much faster and broader communications compared to the conventional STM or packet switching method.

The communication channels for cells are such virtual connections as VP (Virtual Path) and VC (Virtual Channel). These are identified by the VPI (Virtual Path Identifier) and VCI (Virtual Channel Identifier) stored in the 5-byte header of each cell.

Figure 2-4is a conceptual diagram of VP and VC in an ATM network, and the format of ATM cells.

Figure 2-4: Virtual Path (VP) and Virtual Channel (VC)

Centillion 1200N ATM Switch User Manual	2-5
NTP 297-8103-903