Atm vs Frame Relay vs Mpls

ATM, Frame Relay, and MPLS

In the world of technology, where evolution and innovation is the norm, it may be hard to decipher what is best to use. Whether it be routing protocol or choosing hardware specifications, every decision has its benefits and disadvantages. Network technology is the same. People are split on which method is the best. In most cases it depends on the intended use of the network, and based on that, your decision could be made for you. Along with use of the network, budget and bandwidth may also be deciding factors. Three of the most popular network technologies today are asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, and multi-label protocol switching. While they all intend to accomplish the same objective, they all function differently, which allows each one to have its own scenarios where it will be the best fit. The answer may not always be clear, but knowing about these three technologies will go a long way in making the decision easier.

Asynchronous transfer mode is a network switching technology designed to converge voice and data over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). ATM was developed in the 1980’s and became popular in the 1990’s, but fell out of favor after IP-based products offered a better price/performance combination (Steinberg, 1996). When sending data, ATM uses packets called cells. A unique feature of ATM is that these cells have a fixed size. Each cell is 53 bytes total. Every cell has a 5byte header along with a 48 byte payload. The fixed cell size is easier on the hardware. It uses asynchronous time division multiplexing to transfer its data. With this method data is sent as soon as it is available to be sent. Both features are beneficial when sending real time or low latency traffic since there is no delay when sending the data. Since ATM is a connection-oriented protocol, a route, or virtual circuit, must be established before any data is sent. Once the virtual...