The IP over ATM Mailing List Archive by date

[schulter@zk3.dec.com]

On Fri, 29 Mar 96 03:17:25 EST Paul Ferguson wrote:

>  Yes, ATM should change, in so many words.
>
>  IP, like it or not, is entrenched in the global environment [Internet].
>  This is not likely to change.

Is it likely that ATM will change?  This is an interesting question.  A lot
of people seem to feel that ATM should change in order to better handle
IP traffic.  While I don't think this is bad, I have to ask if this is
realistic.  Is IP traffic likely to represent a significant percentage of 
traffic carried on ATM networks (especially global networks)?  Or will IP 
traffic be one of many, as Masataka pointed out.  If IP is likely to represent
a significant portion of the global ATM traffic, then there is good 
reason for ATM to change to better accomodate IP.  However, if IP
is one amoung many (including not only telephony traffic, but services
like VoD) and represents only a small percentage of total ATM traffic,
then I don't see good reasons (technical or economical) to change ATM.
ATM should be efficient at handling the majority of its traffic, not
necessarily every type of traffic (IMHO).

And, if ATM was changed to better deal with IPs problem set, would it
still be efficient and economical for telephony?  Would it be globally
deployable?  Would this affect (for better or worse) the carrying of
other types of traffic (other protocols, video, voice)?  After all, to
solve all of the problems with IP and QoS ATM would have to undergo
some rather wholesale changes (and become much more complex in the process).

Maybe a better question to ask would be: should ATM change to better handle 
data traffic in general (not just IP)?  This might be a more meaningful
question as the answers might apply to a larger set of problems.

 --- pete

------------------
Peter Schulter					schulter@zk3.dec.com
Digital UNIX Networking				voice (603) 881-2920
Digital Equipment Corp				voice (DTN) 381-2920
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