To construct the future multimedia network, ATM network technology and services should support cost-effective, high-speed interconnectivity and a variety of service-providing functions. Furthermore, as the infrastructure of future multimedia service, the ATM architecture should be adaptable to changes without needing replacement of its core functions and platform capabilities. This paper presents an overview of the current state of development, standardization and deployment of the ATM network service technologies and architecture concept. It also discusses the trend toward the integration of ATM technology and Internet technology. Also reported is the state of development and standardization for the individual ATM technologies and related issues, including access networks, bearer services, signalling, network middleware, and future ATM switching system technology.

This paper describes key technologies for establishing a large-scale public switching node system architecture for handling voice and telephony over ATM (VTOA). VTOA is one of the most promising ATM applications, which allows network operating companies to provide a less-expensive but relatively high quality telephone service, by employing voice-data compression and the efficient transmission capabilities of AAL2. We discuss several technical aspects of VTOA handling system architecture, such as the optimum basis for the node, i. e. , STM versus ATM, the appropriate network structure, and suitable signalling. These key points are evaluated from the standpoints of economy, ease of implementation, and extensibility. Our proposed methods should provide the basis for constructing an efficient and cost-effective VTOA handling network.

A traffic engineering method has been developed to meet the requirements for efficient bandwidth dimensioning and for a practical and consolidated network design method. It characterizes the offered-traffic burstiness on a transit link by using time-series measurement of the aggregate traffic. It estimates future traffic characteristics based on the average traffic volume at that time which is easily derived from trend analysis, i. e. , an x% increase in bandwidth each year and gives the required link capacity. Simulation showed that the parameters estimated using this method fit the actual behavior of a network well. This method enables an appropriate bandwidth to be allocated to a transit link without having to estimate the specific traffic characteristics for each connection over the link. Once the burstiness parameter and its trend have been identified based on this method, it is possible to use a simple traffic measurement method to detect changes in network traffic and feed them back to the engineering procedure.

A heavy traffic limit theorem for the virtual waiting time of the queuing system in which several types of customers share a single server (//1) is derived. This theorem is an extension of Borovkov's heavy traffic limit theorem for the virtual waiting time of the GI/G/1 queue. Based upon this theorem, the approximate mean waiting time and mean queue length for each type of customer are formulated. Numerical examples show that the approximate formulas are useful tools for the performance evaluation of multiclass customer processing systems.

High-speed streaming services are considered to be among the most promising services for the broadband Internet of the next generation. A contents delivery network (CDN) that allows effective and scalable content delivery will be required in this role. However, the actual requirements for the CDN, such as quality of service (QoS), the service deployment strategy and technical issues are not yet to be defined. In this paper, the bandwidth requirement of the CDN is derived through QoS evaluation. On the basis of this requirement, we propose two feasible CDN configurations: an IP technology based configuration and an optical video distribution technology based configuration. Finally, we make lists of technical issues for the configurations and discuss some of the possible solutions.