Critique of ATM
The technology was developed for the next generation of the PSTN (namely B-ISDN) and is now being used for internetworking which is something totally different
The specifications are too complicated and heavy for today’s needs:
- There are too many AALs, AAL 1 and AAL 5 would be sufficient for most purposes
- The ISDN-like ATM signaling is too complicated
- The connection-oriented paradigm is too heavy for many purposes
Consequently, developing ATM equipment and applications is slow and expensive
With current programming methodology, it is next to impossible to create programs that could adequately utilize the service options provided by ATM