The emerging gigabit environment and the role of local ATM

Several office application areas that, it is argued, cannot be explored effectively without an improvement in networking capabilities are described. Since the applications are predominantly based on the transmission of moving or still images, recent progress in data representation and compression that has an impact on the networking requirements is discussed. It is shown that asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) techniques can provide an acceptable, cost-effective means for meeting these requirements. The challenges that must be met, particularly in the local area, before the applications can be found in every laboratory and on every office desktop are outlined.<>