Which Wide Area Network (WAN) switching technology is used by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)?
A. packet switching
B. virtual switching
C. circuit switching
D. cell switching
Explanation:
Cell switching is a WAN switching technology that is used by ATM. ATM is an International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunications (ITU-T) standard for transmission of data, voice, or video traffic using a fixed size frame of 53 bytes, known as cells. Out of these 53 bytes, the initial five bytes are header information and the rest 48 bytes is the payload.
Packet switching is incorrect because packet switching is popularly used for data transfer, as data is not delay sensitive and it does not require real time transfer from a sender to a receiver. With packet switching, the data is broken into labeled packets and transmitted using packet-switching networks.
Virtual switching is incorrect because no such WAN switching technology exists.
Circuit switching is incorrect because circuit switching dynamically establishes a virtual connection between a source and destination. The virtual connection cannot be used by other callers unless the circuit is released. Circuit switching is the most common technique used by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to make phone calls. A dedicated circuit is temporarily established for the duration of call between caller and receiver. Once the caller or receiver hangs up the phone, the circuit is released and is available for other users.