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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Whitley who wrote (40530)	3/23/1998 2:34:00 AM
From: bucky89	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

Jack, In the OSI networking model, ATM is a technology for layer 2 (data link layer) while "routing" refers to layer 3 (network layer) protocols for transmissions between computers. The most popular routing protocol today is IP (Internet Protocol). Layer 2 technologies are used to manage communication on the physical circuits themselves, and these are typically switched and very fast. ATM is a switching technology. Layer 3 technologies involve a lot of processing and network address lookups which can take a lot of time and overhead. The extra processing required often causes congestion for the router when it gets hit by too many packets at the same time. Ascend's "smart" ATM switches use a new pre-standard method called MPLS (something something Label Switching--I forget the exact acronym). Cisco's competing proprietary technology is call "Tag Switching", which operates on a very similar principal, but is proprietary. I believe the ITU is behind a movement to make MPLS industry-standard. The specifics of this technology are quite detailed, but in a nutshell it allows Ascend's ATM switches to read IP packets (layer 3) and switch them using layer 2 ATM technology. This significantly speeds up data flow, and because ATM is a connection-oriented technology, there will not be congestion at any intermediate nodes. Since Quality of Service was specifically designed into ATM by the standards forum, it also allows the carriers to assign higher priority to certain traffic by paying customers. Because MPLS is still pre-standard, this requires all switches within the ATM cloud to be Ascend, that is if MPLS is to be turned on. Hope this helps. Bucky89

To: Jack Whitley who wrote (40530)	3/24/1998 8:44:00 AM
From: Gary Korn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 61433

ASND premarket trading, Tue., 3/24: ASND - Transaction Log 8:42:03 S A 32:F 8:37:29 S A 32:F 8:42:03 S 34.1 - 32:F 10x10 8:37:29 S 34.2 - 32:F 14x10 8:42:02 S 500 34.2 T 8:37:27 S 300 34.2 T 8:41:58 S A 32:F 8:37:27 S 700 34.2 T 8:41:58 S 34.2 - 32:F 10x10 8:37:27 S 300 34.2 T 8:41:26 S 500 34.2 T 8:37:22 S 1000 34.2 T 8:41:25 S 1400 34.3 T 8:37:10 S 1000 34.2 T 8:41:24 S 600 34.3 T 8:37:05 S A 32:F 8:41:22 S 2000 34:5 T 8:37:05 S 34.1 - 32:F 6x10 8:41:04 S A 32:F 8:37:05 S 1000 34.2 T 8:41:04 S 34.3 - 32:F 10x10 8:37:05 S 1000 34.2 T 8:40:57 S 500 34.3 T 8:36:59 S 1000 34.2 T 8:40:57 S 400 34.3 T 8:36:59 S 4000 34.2 T 8:39:06 S 100 34.3 T 8:36:49 S 1000 34.2 T 8:38:54 S 900 34.4 T 8:36:48 S 1000 34.2 T 8:37:55 S A 32:F 8:36:32 S 1000 34.2 T 8:37:55 S 34.4 - 32:F 10x10 8:36:21 S 1000 34.2 T 8:37:46 S A 32:F 8:36:20 S 1000 34.2 T 8:37:46 S 34.3 - 32:F 10x10 8:36:07 S A 32:F 8:37:30 S 600 34.2 T 8:36:07 S 34 - 32:F 5x10 8:37:30 S 1000 34.2 T 8:35:47 S 1000 34.2 T 8:35:42 S A 32:F 8:35:42 S 34.7 - 32:F 10x10 8:34:30 S 900 34.2 T 8:34:30 S 100 34.2 T 8:34:05 S 900 34.2 T 8:34:05 S 100 34.2 T 8:33:59 S A 32:F 8:33:59 S 34 - 32:F 5x10 8:33:12 S 400 34.2 T 8:33:12 S 100 34.2 T 8:30:57 S 1000 34:3 T 8:30:40 S 1000 34:3 T 8:30:40 S 1000 34:3 T 8:30:27 S 1000 34:3 T 8:18:51 S 500 34 T 8:16:36 S 600 34.2 T 8:15:47 S A 32:F 8:15:47 S 33 - 32:F 10x10 end of data