JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD B.Tech III DATA COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER NETWORKS Previous Question Paper (March - 2021 - R16)

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is a high-speed, connection-oriented switching technology designed for integrated voice, video, and data traffic. It uses small, fixed-size data units called cells, each 53 bytes long (5 bytes header, 48 bytes payload). This fixed size ensures predictable processing times and minimizes jitter, making it ideal for real-time applications. ATM operates at the Data Link Layer and utilizes virtual circuits to establish paths between communicating nodes.

Frame Relay is a packet-switching technology designed for efficient data transmission across wide area networks (WANs). It operates at the Data Link Layer and uses variable-length frames to transport data. Unlike traditional X.25, Frame Relay minimizes overhead by performing error detection at the endpoints rather than at every intermediate node, relying on high-quality digital transmission lines. It uses Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) to provide dedicated logical connections between users, offering cost-effective bandwidth on demand.