ATM inside a multimedia server

The architecture of the next generation of multimedia servers is influenced by (a) multimedia client-server applications, (b) multiple processors on a single board, (c) preservation of the current software investments, (c) and very high-speed and multimedia networking such as, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). Currently, servers are not designed for handling multimedia traffic inside and effectively delivering the high bandwidth of the network to the processor boards (where applications reside). Extending ATM into the server as the interconnect fabric and communication architecture is proposed as a feasible solution. Several server architectures using ATM as the system interconnect are proposed and their performance is evaluated by simulation using realistic traffic loads.