What are the advantages and disadvantages of ATM over Ethernet/Token Ring?
The former is a switching strategy designed for links of 155Mbps and above, the latter are LAN protocols that are primarily concerned with controlling access to a shared medium. Unlike Ethernet, ATM links have no distance limitations. ATM can be used as a high-performance backbone for larger LANs, but there are difficulties. One of the primary difficulties is that Ethernet and token ring support broadcasting and ATM does not. This broadcasting facility is used by LAN protocols such as ARP, and must be emulated over the ATM backbone to provide the needed functionality.