Introduction to the Special Issue: ATM Systems and Networks: Basics, Issues, and Performance Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is one of the major enabling technologies of high-speed networking. It is the first technology that allows a corporation to use a common enterprise protocol and infrastructure for voice, data, and video communications. ATM excels when applications require specific quality of service (QoS) and reserved bandwidth. It offers economies of scale in network infrastructure by integrating different traffic types. ATM offers a tighter coupling between the user application and network protocol. It places intelligence into the Wide Area Network (WAN), making the network smarter and allowing the network to become more like a computer and less like a dump transport medium. ATM is the ideal technology when it is desirable for applications with different performance, QoS, and business requirements to be performed on the same computer multiplexer, router, switch, and/or network. It enables network managers to flexibly adapt to changing enterprise communications requirements, evolving business environment, and fluctuating traffic volumes and patterns. This special issue of SIMULATION: Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International aims at reporting on the state-of-the-art on research results in performance modeling and simulation of ATM systems and networks. The papers accepted in this special issue represent recent efforts by leading scientists and engineers from academia, industry, and government worldwide.