ATM to Address the Residential Market
telecoms-mag.com
BERLIN -- The reality of providing broadband services to the home using
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology came one step closer with the
creation of a draft specification by the ATM Forum, following a meeting here
last month.
The framework document, on which Forum members are due to be balloted
later this month, defines the background and environment for ATM access
systems and lays the groundwork for more detailed guidelines which could
lead to integration with other technologies, such as cable modems or digital
subscriber lines (xDSL). The specification, if approved, is expected to be
formally announced in July.
According to George Dobrowski, president of the Forum's board of
directors, and director of broadband networks for Bellcore, "This is a very
significant move for ATM because of the size of the residential market. Most
of the focus for ATM has been on the business side until now. This
development marks an important expansion."
He added that the Forum had been working closely with both telco and cable
camps through industry bodies such as the xDSL Technology Forum and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) group responsible for
cable modems. He said both would be taking the Forum's specification (if
finally approved) to develop guidelines for running ATM over ADSL and
coaxial cable.
The ability to support ATM on these access technologies is important for the
future of ATM as operators begin to rollout out broadband infrastructure to
the home. Deutsche Telekom intends to become the first major European
operator to offer commercial xDSL to customers when it begins ADSL rollout
in eight German cities this year. Meanwhile cable operators, including Cable &
Wireless, are busy testing cable modems for use in supplying multimedia
services to the residential market. "Working with both these industry sections
makes sure that whatever kind of access technology is being used, there will
be consistent integration for an array of services into the home," said
Dobrowski.
Although ATM is an 'old' technology and is regarded by many in the industry
as the prime candidate for running multimedia broadband services, it does not
have the high profile image its supporters would like to see. According to
David Wells, vice president of membership development for the ATM Forum,
and director of ATM marketing for Tellabs Ltd, "The problem for ATM is
that when it succeeds it is invisible." He said that statistics tend to show high
investment in ATM but low revenues resulting from ATM services. What
statistics do not show, however, is the revenue produced from services
running over ATM such as frame relay or IP, he said. "It gives a distorted
picture if you just look at ATM applications."
For Greg Ratta, chair of the Forum's worldwide technical committee, and
ATM standards manager for Lucent Technologies, the Forum is attempting to
combat this with a "cook book approach", producing guidelines and
application notes for operators and vendors. "We are trying to make the
technology reachable," he said.
The meeting also advanced the work of wireless ATM with a joint meeting
between the Forum and ETSI's broadband radio access network (BRAN)
group at which agreement was made about the reference configurations on
which a future specification to run ATM on third generation wireless devices
can be built. -- AB |
