ATM Wide-Area Networks (was: sell shell accounts?)

Tue Jul 23 21:30:18 UTC 1996

> From: Dave Siegel <dave at rtd.net>
> Subject: Re: ATM Wide-Area Networks (was: sell shell accounts?)
> To: salo at msc.edu (Tim Salo)
> Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:22:23 -0700 (MST)
> Cc: dave at rtd.net, agislist at interstice.com, nanog at merit.edu
> 	[...]
> Even
> with the improved buffering, if you fill your pipe into the ATM switch,
> your ATM switch still becomes a packet shredder, compared to the more
> graceful packet drops seen on a clear channel line.
> 	[...]

"Good" ATM switches are doing Early Packet Discard and Partial Packet
Discard.  You can ask your favorite switch vendor for details, or look
at the following for a nice summary:

	http://www.fore.com/html/atm-edu/whitep/FTBMWP.html

-tjs

I am not quite sure how an ATM switch becomes a "packet shredder," or
even what a "packet shredder" is...