Broadband ISDN (BISDN) is intended to provide common access, switching and transport functions for a variety of services including voice, video and data at high speeds. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a new, cell based, transport and switching technology which will be used to offer BISDN based services to support high performance transport needs of user applications at high bandwidths. While this new technology provides enormous potential in becoming the enabler for BISDN services, it introduces many challenges that have become a primary topic for researchers and practitioners. It is evident from numerous publications that the ATM technology will continue to challenge the computer and communications community for years to come.
International standards for ATM are being developed in International Telecommunications Union (ITU)-Telecommunications Standardization (T) sector (formerly CeITT). Industry forums such as the ATM Forum in the USA are developing industry agreements to make sure that ATM based equipment are interoperable. In addition, we have been witnessing a number of industry activities that are directed toward the standardization of the ATM technology, implementation of ATM based equipment (switches,