Are ATM, Gigabit Ethernet ready for prime time

ATM and Gigabit Ethernet, the subjects of intense speculation by industry observers and potential users of the technologies, appear as if they may be ready to begin competing for their place in the networking sun. The demand for both technologies is being caused by the increasing adoption of Internet and intranet technology and the growing number of bandwidth-hungry applications. These factors make it necessary to move an increasing amount of data at faster rates over networks. Enterprises are thus beginning to adopt ATM and Gigabit Ethernet. In some cases, the two technologies are replacing FDDI backbones because they can be less expensive and provide higher speeds. In addition, ATM has quality of service features, while Gigabit Ethernet can provide seamless connectivity throughout LANs that already use Ethernet technology. Both technologies provide LAN services, such as scalable campus backbones, load sharing, and connections to WAN services. ATM has been available longer and is being deployed where high bandwidth performance is required. ATM and Gigabit Ethernet involve a variety of complex issues that will, in part, determine whether and how users adopt either or both technologies.