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Will gigabit ethernet replace asynchronous transfer mode? Not likely. Although the two are often depicted as competing technologies, they have complementary roles to play in the networking landscape. For example, Gigabit Ethernet and ATM can be combined to create effective corporate intranets.
ATM is likely to be the strategic choice for enterprise backbones driven by the capacity to support voice and tie into the wide area network. ATM also is the best choice for new applications providing multimedia or interactive video capabilities that are particularly susceptible to latency. Only ATM can provide the quality of service that will let these applications operate efficiently over the network.
But while ATM has a rich feature set, it can't be deployed end-to-end. That requires two conversions-from frames to cells, and from LAN addressing to ATM addressing. Also, deployment entails a certain amount...