ATM Requirements

ATM is a connection-oriented network protocol. To use this protocol, two communicating entities must establish a connection before data transfer can begin. The Transport Control Protocol/Interface Program (TCP/IP), on the other hand, is inherently connectionless.

The SunATM(TM) 2.1 software supports two protocols that reconcile the differences between the ATM and TCP/IP paradigms:

• Classical Internet Protocol (IP) interface

• LAN Emulation interface

Both these protocols enable TCP/IP to run transparently over an ATM interface by resolving an IP address to an ATM address and establishing the connection to the host to which a message is addressed.

The Netra ATM administration module supports SunATM version 2.1 software and SunATM-155 version 2.1 hardware. (The SunATM-155/Mfiber SBus Adapter 2.1 and SunATM-155/UTP5 SBus Adapter 2.1 are single-wide SBus adapters that conform to the specifications of the ATM Forum.)