Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. ATM Layer Testing

2. Stages of Testing ATM Products

3. Signaling over ATM

4. Automated Testing

5. Testing Deployment of ATM Services

6. LANE over ATM

7. Summary

Self-Test

Glossary

PDF of this tutorial

Definition
Testing asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) communications and network equipment is the function of performing the three primary testing phases required for complete evaluation of ATM products:

1. conformance verification
2. interoperability testing
3. performance benchmarking

These test phases measure and analyze all aspects of ATM—from the characteristics of lower-layer cell transmission through to the complex ATM services (i.e., available bit rate [ABR], undefined bit rate [UBR], etc.) used to transmit multimedia over ATM networks.

Overview
The term "ATM technology" has become inextricably linked to promises of a global communications infrastructure. The expectation is that seamless integration of voice data and video across high-speed ATM links will provide universal access to multimedia services.

ATM equipment developers, service providers, and end users are all faced with these same challenges when testing ATM products. ATM technology is now in a period of dynamic growth. Standards groups (i.e., the International Telecommunications Union [ITU]) are challenged to keep up with this fast-paced development, and their publications do not always correspond to specifications issued by other organizations (i.e., the ATM Forum).

How can ATM technology users define their testing requirements and focus on product release and deployment? This tutorial by is intended to provide the reader with an overview of the main issues encountered when testing ATM products.