PhoneGod Interview Series
Colonel Kurtz on ATM
PhoneGod.net staff member had the opportunity to meet with Lieutenant Colonel Walter Kurtz, Special Forces, U.S. Army, educated at West Pointe. To do so Staff member Captain Benjamin L. Willard had to travel down Nung River with the 101's Airborne Ranger Division.
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Phone God It's good to finally meet you, Colonel. How are you? Kurtz Who are you? Phone God My name is Willard. Captain Willard, sir. We've met before. I'm from phonegod.net to discuss ATM |
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Kurtz Are you an assassin? Phone God I'm a soldier. Kurtz You're neither. You're an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill. Phone God Um…ok. I'm here to ask you about ATM. Kurtz ATM? The horror. Phone God Colonel, could you just answer the question without mumbling? Kurtz ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) carries voice, video, and data over a single network. It used PVC (permanent virtual circuits). It's a private network using public facilities. It uses a SONET backbone. It's a high-speed cell switching technology. Phone God Thank you. How fast is it, and what do you mean cell switching? |
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Kurtz How fast do you need it to be? I once saw a circuit running at the OC3 level. That was 155 MBPS pushing those little 53-byte cells along. They can also be at a DS1 speed and that of a DS3. Phone God So it can go as fast as an OC3? Kurtz It can go even faster. ATM allows temporary bursting of data beyond the subscription rate. You can also permanently add bandwidth without physically upgrading. Phone God So what exactly does it do? Kurtz It integrates your LANs and WANs into one WAN. It inter-networks hardware and software. It provides a more…..complete solution. Phone God What sort of applications could use it? What would the demographic be? Kurtz College campuses. Networking remote locations. Videoconferencing and interactive remote learning. Multimedia workgroups. Collaborative workgroups. Access to a super-computer. Phone God What kind of equipment do you typically use for this sort of thing, Colonel? Kurtz I've used an AT&T GCNS as a core switch. I've seen a Cisco LS1010 and a Fore Systems ASX - 200/1000 for the premise switch. Have you ever seen an ADC Kentrox AAC-1 or an AAC-3 used for an ATM CSU? I have. In Laos there was a Cisco BPX, the Stratcom they called it. That was an edge switch. Phone God
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