Emerging Communications Technologies

The communications professional's guide to emerging communications technologies, including: ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface), SMDS (Switched Megabit Data Services), SONET (Synchronous Optical Network), and mobile-wireless technologies. It provides readers with a comparison of these technologies, their pros and cons, a description of where they do or do not compete with each other, and an examination of their targeted applications. Issues involved in making the transition from traditional technologies to these new technologies are also covered. Based on training courses given by the author at AT&T, Digital, Bellcore, Bell Northern Research and British Telecom. Each technology is described in terms of the following―typical topologies, layers, PDUs (protocol data units), operations in detail, network to network operations, the MIB (Management Information Bases).