Available Bit Rate - A new service for ATM

The ATM Forum is gaining wide recognition as a body of people devoted to defining ATM specifications. This paper reports the current activities of one of the Forum's subworking groups, Traffic Management, which is concerned with the definition of the Available Bit Rate (ABR) service. An explanation of the ABR service is given, along with an up-to-date (at the time of writing!) report of the progress being made with its specification. Finally, this paper proposes a method of support for the ABR service, using a device developed by BT Laboratories and Oxford Brookes University. A description of the device is given, and the method by which the device would provide a low cost start up for ABR services is described.