Geert Arnout Awater

Wireless ATM—an overview

This paper sketches the requirements and possibilities of wireless ATM in local area networks. Because of the wide range of services supported by ATM networks, ATM technology is expected to become the dominant networking technology in the medium term for both public infrastructure networks and for local area networks. ATM infrastructure can support all types of services, from time-sensitive voice communications and desk-top multi-media conferencing, to bursty transaction processing and LAN traffic. Extending the ATM infrastructure with a wireless access mechanism meets the needs of those users and customers that want a unified, end-to-end networking infrastructure with high-performance, consistent service characteristics. The paper introduces ATM concepts, discusses the requirements for wireless ATM, in particular for data link control and radio functions. It closes with some notes on development of wireless ATM research systems standardization and spectrum allocations.