ATM in the home-and-the home area network

The cost of asynchronous transfer mode technology is falling while its deployment is growing. Once regarded as a technology strictly for rates above 100 Mbps, ATM may now be considered for any networking scenario where multimedia and real-time are important. We look at a possible deployment path for ATM technology in the home and explain some of our practical work. These are both based on dumb ATM devices which can be built for low cost. The style of operation and method of control of these dumb devices uses the approach of the ATM Warren. The Warren is a method of building low cost ATM devices and switches where the cost savings are achieved by using fixed VCI values in end stations and by using proxy control from a single processor, rather than local control processors in each device or switch.