SONATE-an ATM multimedia LAN demonstrator

As illustrated by the emergence of commercial products focussing on the datacom segment, the ATM technology has recently gained favour for implementing new generation network elements dedicated to the business communication area. A number of actions, including the SONATE Project, have been conducted in order to design and realize wider broadband communication platforms. After reminding the rationale for implementing an experimental ATM system coping with both real-time multimedia communications and data transfer applications, the overall architecture of the SONATE demonstrator is described. Last, the work status by early 1994 and an overview of further activities for expanding potential applications and system functionalities are mentioned.